Totalitarianism and Political Religions, Volume III - Historiaonceib ...

Berdyaev, Nikolai AleksandrovicA lexicographical survey 305Russian philosopher; born 1874 in Kiev; died 1948 at Clamart, near Paris;studied natural and legal sciences at the University of Kiev; Marxist activitiesbeginning in 1898. Member of the ‘Alliance for the Liberation of theWorking Class’, simultaneously published philosophical works in Marxistjournals; was banned due to social-democratic activities from 1900 to 1903,first to northern Russia, then to the Ukraine. In 1903, the life-long friendshipwith Leo Sestov began; co-editor of the journal Novjy Put from 1904 to 1908;close contacts to the Russian symbolists; discussion with Mereschkovskyabout the new religious consciousness. In Moscow from 1908 to 1922;professor at the University of Moscow in 1920. From 1910, Berdyaev wasone of the first to represent an ecumenical position in religious discussions;deprivation of citizenship in 1922; involvement from 1922 to 1924 in theintellectual life of the Russian community in Munich; editor of the journalSofia; from 1924 to 1948, worked with the journal Put in Paris; after 1944,worked with the journal Russkij Patriot.WorkIn his essay, ‘Novoe christianstvo: D. Mereschkovsky’ (‘New Christianity’,Russkaja mysl, 1916), Berdyaev refutes Mereschkovsky’s conceptions of thenew religious consciousness and of a reconstruction of the social structureon religious foundations. In opposition to historical Christianity,Mereschkovsky links the ‘new’ Christianity to the idea of the ‘sacral body’ –of the community that bears God within. Berdyaev, by contrast, begins withthe individual personality and regards the new Christianity predominantlyas a religious anthropology. For Berdyaev, revelation means humanrevelation – that is, the creative power of the human being. His conceptionincludes an unlimited freedom for the religious person, who must relyexclusively upon himself and should expect support neither from above norfrom without. He makes this anthropology of freedom more precise in hiswork, The Philosophy of the Free Spirit: Problems of and Apology forChristianity (Filosofia svobodnogo ducha: Problematika i apologija christianstva(Paris, 1928)). The freedom of the religious human being is basedupon a mystical understanding of the world. This is what distinguishes itfrom the magical understanding of freedom, which anchors the humanbeing firmly within the sphere of necessity. To this distinction correspondsthe distinction between Christianity and the theory of progress. WhereasChristianity triumphs on the mystical plane with a victory over the originsof evil, the theory of progress tries its hand at fighting the consequences ofevil. Whereas, for Christianity, history is oriented upon a Jesus Christ whotranscends history, for the theory of progress, a divinised human beingattempts to cope with history within the sphere of necessity. In structuralterms, therefore, progressivism is parallel to Christianity.