Man and the Church in Berdyaev: a British Perspective

The article reflects on Berdyaev’s reception in Britain and notes that following the broad reception in the 1930s and 1940s, Berdyaev’s reputation slowly declined over the next thirty years. The author explains his first reading of Berdyaev in the 1970s and the parallels that he found with Tillich, noting that both reveal the influence of Schelling and both offer a creative transformation of German Idealism. With V. Lossky, Berdyaev was also a primary mediator of the Russian tradition at that time. Particularly appealing in his work was an account of freedom that was more radical than what was usual in theological works but that avoided the arbitrari ness of Sartre, emphasizing instead the contextualization of freedom in sobornost’, in creativity, and in cosmic life. The article notes the Christocentric and eschatological dimensions of Berdyaev’s thought that were important for the deve lopment of his philosophy and history and the tension between a certain dualism (as in the dialectic of slavery and freedom) and the holism of a divine-human-cosmic synthesis. The article concludes with reflections on how Berdyaev’s notion of the Russian Idea is productive not only in relation to Russian nationalism but also for an ecumenical vision that offered hope for Christian renewal in the era of totalita rianism.