NICOLAS BERDYAEV THE DIVINE AND THE HUMAN LONDON GEOFFREY BLES 1949 -iii- TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY R. M. FRENCH Printed in Great Britain by Robert MacLehose and Company Ltd The University Press Glasgow for Geoffrey Bles Ltd 52 Doughty Street London WC1 First Published 1949 TO LYDIA BERDYAEV -iv- Preface Max Stirner said, 'Ich habe meine Sache auf Nichts gestellt,' 'I have based my case on Nothing.' I for my part say that I have based my case upon Freedom. Freedom is Nothing, in the sense that it is not one of the realities of the natural world, it is not a certain thing. So I have given my first chapter the ironic title: 'An undevout meditation.' Traditionally, devout meditation does not start from freedom. As a son of freedom I accept the free criticism of historical Christianity, and the free criticism of revelation, and it should be of the same kind as the criticism of pure reason. 1 This book is not about dogma, it is not in the least theological, though it might perhaps claim the right to say that it is 'believing'. Philosophy should be concerned not only with scientific knowledge but also with the religious way of life. 'Scientism' is a false and limited philosophy. In this book it is my wish to give expression to the inward spiritual conflict which we have experienced in recent years, the torments and sufferings we have undergone, to our conquest of them, and to the hopes that have been ours. My thought, which is directed to that which belongs to the beginning and to that which belongs to the end, admits of only one possible metaphysic, and that is meta-history. Everything existential is history, dynamic force, destiny, man, the world, are history, God is history, a drama which is working itself out. The philosophy to which I would give expression, is a dramatic philosophy of destiny, of existence which is in time and passes over into eternity, of time which presses on to an end, an end which is not death but transfiguration. Everything, therefore, ought to be regarded from the point of view of the philosophy of history. And the philosophy ____________________ 1This will be the subject of my new book, Truth and Revelation. -v- of history can itself be nothing but prophetic, and that which unriddles the secrets of the future. I do not believe in the phenomenological method. It may be fruitful in psychology, it may be of assistance in metaphysical and meta-historical apprehension--but I believe only in a method which is existentially anthropocentric and spiritually religious-if indeed that can be called a method. Husserl wishes to investigate essences by the phenomenological method. Heidegger wants to investigate existences by the phenomenological method. But in that case the existences disappear, and objectivization results, which shuts its eyes to the mystery of the life of man, of the world and of God. Expressionism in philosophy is the only true path. The only possible metaphysic is a prophetic metaphysic, to use an expression of Jaspers's, and metaphysics in the grand style have always been such. Existential philosophy is the expression of my personal destiny, but my destiny ought to express also the destiny of the world and of man. This is not a transition from the individual to the common, but an intuitive disclosure of the universal in the individual. Philosophy, metaphysics, are not a reflection of objective realities, but a change within human existence, a revealing of the meaning of existence. Metaphysics is the expression of being. The world presents itself in different ways according to whether a man is occupied in commerce, in political conflict, in intellectual or artistic creativeness or in religious contemplation. And a man understands any particular thing only when thought is penetrated by feeling and the whole being of the man comes into action. That which is called 'being' is defined not by thought, not by knowledge nor idea, but by the whole subject, that is to say, by feeling, will and the whole bent. In this way various worlds are created. Truth is created in the subject; it is not given objectively from without. The world presents itself in different ways according to whether we are young or old, in good or ill health, happy or sad, learned or illiterate, believers or sceptics and so on. -vi- It is impossible to approach existence; one can only go out from it. Truth is the act of freedom, it is created. Kierkegaard says that truth is identical with subjectivity. God reveals Himself for the sake of the single person. God is present only in subjectivity. Objective truth is the death of existence. There is much truth in Kierkegaard's words, although it is not the whole truth and it is at times distorted. Jaspers says that the transcendent is to be captured only by plunging into the depth of the immanent, and this is what I also say, though I express it differently. Jaspers again maintains that the border-line position of man finds its support in transcendence. To him everything relative is objective, whereas the existential is in the absolute. In contrast to such existential philosophers as Heidegger and many others, I am convinced that religious experience, of the existence of which it is impossible to doubt, enriches knowledge and enlightens philosophy. But this presupposes a different relation between philosophy and religion from that which is commonly accepted. Present-day philosophy is hostile to the abstract. Its bent is towards the concrete. This was Hegel's objective also although he did not completely attain it. The dialectic of this book will be not of logic but of life, a living existential dialectic. It is characteristic of my thought to take an eschatological direction. This book will make it clear what that means. The book was written in an exceptionally difficult period of my life, both outwardly and within. This fact has its bearing upon the existentiality of the creative subject. It has required great spiritual concentration to avoid being overwhelmed by the conditions of life. PARIS, CLAMART 1944-1945 -vii- [This page intentionally left blank.] -viii- Contents PREFACE page v I. AN UNDEVOUT MEDITATION: THE CRISIS OF CHRISTIANITY: CRITIQUE OF REVELATION 1 II. THE DIALECTIC OF THE DIVINE AND THE HUMAN IN GERMAN THOUGHT: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NIETZSCHE: THE DIALECTIC OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 22 III. DEVELOPMENT AND NEWNESS 49 IV. FEAR 59 V. SUFFERING 66 VI. EVIL 86 VII. WAR 98 VIII. MANHOOD 110 IX. SPIRITUALITY 128 X. BEAUTY 139 XI. IMMORTALITY 149 XII. MESSIANISM AND HISTORY 167 XIII. RELIGION OF THE SPIRIT: A DEVOUT MEDITATION 183 XIV. THE END OF THINGS AND THE NEW ÆON 195 PRINCIPAL WORKS OF NICOLAS BERDYAEV 203 -ix- [This page intentionally left blank.] -x- CHAPTER I An Undevout Meditation The Crisis of Christianity Critique of Revelation There are two crises. The crisis of the non-Christian and anti-Christian world, and the crisis of the Christian world, the crisis within Christianity itself. The second of these crises is more profound than the first. Everything which happens in the world and which gives us the impression of something which is external and even crudely material, has its source in the inward and the spiritual. In a certain sense it may be said that Christianity, historical Christianity, is coming to an end, and that a rebirth is to be looked for only from a religion of the Holy Spirit which will bring Christianity itself to birth again, since it is the fulfilment of Christianity. The weakness of Christianity in the world, a world which is in the grip of movements which are the work of dynamic forces and often of demonic forces, is the weakness of historical Christianity, and points to a transition to eschatological Christianity which is concerned with a world of the future. Eschatological Christianity will also be the religion of the Spirit, a trinitarian religion which is a fulfilment of promises, hopes and expectations. We are, as it were, in an entr' acte and for that reason our epoch is a time of suffering. The world is passing through a stage of God-forsakenness. It is difficult to understand the mystery of the God-forsakenness of the world and of man. We ought not to rationalize the mystery; and this very mysterious fact clashes with the traditional doctrine of the Providence of God. The crisis of Christian consciousness is -1- profound. It reaches to the very idea of God and the understanding of revelation. Christians will have to learn a very great deal from those movements which appear to be anti-Christian and from atheism itself, for even in those movements one is bound to feel the breath of the Spirit. That which rises up in human consciousness against God in the name of man is also an uprising of the true God Himself. Revolt against God can only be in the name of God, for the sake of a higher idea of God. In a large measure the revolt against God and especially the moral revolt, presupposes the existence of God. In reality no atheists exist; there are only idolators. Atheism goes deep and suffers. It is not light- heartedly gay or full of grim hatred. It is an affirmation of God. The God-forsakenness of the world is its burden. Franz Baader says the burden means that God is absent. And the world to-day is both heavily burdened and absolutely fluid. This load upon the world and this fluidity are connected with each other.