The Destiny of Man by Nikolai Berdyayev

First published:O naznachenii cheloveka, 1931 (English translation, 1937)

Edition(s) used:The Destiny of Man, translated by Natalie Duddington. New York: Harper, 1960

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Subgenre(s): Critical analysis; spiritual treatise; theology

Core issue(s):Creation; freedom and free will; good vs. evil; love; redemption; time

Overview

Nicolai Berdyaev wrote The Destiny of Man as an exile in Paris, following a long philosophical journey that began in his native Russia. Born in czarist Russia in Kiev to an aristocratic father who was a skeptical disciple of Voltaire and to a mother of French descent sympathetic to Catholicism, Berdyaev gradually moved from skepticism to Christianity in the form of the Russian Orthodox faith, following a brief infatuation with Marxism as a youth. From the first he rejected the materialism of Marxism, and he had turned to philosophic idealism before embracing the passion for spiritual freedom in certain Russian thinkers, most notably in Fyodor Dostoevski’s impressive fiction.

After reactionary forces in czarist Russia exiled him to a rural province near Kiev, Berdyaev began to engage in religious speculation with intellectual groups during residence in St. Petersburg, Paris, and Moscow before accepting the Orthodox faith. Despite his conversion, however, he explored Christian theology from a critical position, an approach that brought him into conflict with his church’s conservative hierarchy, and his lifelong support of social reform and liberal causes caused friction first with the czarist government and later with the Soviet administration.

An energetic writer, Berdyaev published numerous articles and books on religion and social issues during his fourteen years in Moscow, despite much opposition. However, after the Russian Revolution, his work brought him into irreconcilable conflict with the Communist government, thereby causing permanent exile in 1922. After a brief residence in Berlin, he settled permanently in Paris, where he became a lecturer and prolific author on theological themes and often worked to bring about rapprochement between French Catholics and French Protestants.

Berdyaev considered himself to be an existentialist because he did not believe in the validity of building a philosophical system like those constructed by traditional philosophers who had been attacked for this practice by Søren Kierkegaard. As, however, he claimed to have discovered the writing of the Christian existentialist Kierkegaard rather late, Dostoevski, particularly his novels, was a greater influence than Kierkegaard. In fact, Dostoevski was the subject of one of Berdyaev’s early books Mirosozertzanie Dostoievskago (1923; Dostoievsky: An Interpretation, 1934). Another major influence was German mysticism, especially the writings of Meister Eckhart and Jakob Böhme.

Rapidity of composition tended to make Berdyaev’s books seem somewhat repetitious and unsystematic, though the concept of a book often came to him as a single, unified imaginative vision. As illustration, he revealed in his posthumous autobiography Samopozhaniye (1949; Dream and Reality, 1950), that the idea for The Destiny of Man came to him while he was watching a ballet in Paris.

Not only is The Destiny of Man one of the most coherent and unified of Berdyaev’s books, but also its synthesis of his major themes makes it a central event in the development of his thought. The work looks both back to his influential early work, Smysl tvorchestva (1916; The Meaning of the Creative Act, 1955), and forward to his analysis of the obsessions that enslave the human spirit in his later masterpiece, O rabstvie I svobodie chelovieka (1939; Slavery and Freedom, 1944).

The nominal subject of The Destiny of Man is a study of ethics from the perspective of Berdyaev’s theology, but in reality, the book takes on a cosmic perspective, since Berdyaev begins with a theory of the creation of the world and the origin of evil and proceeds to a visionary and eschatological conclusion. Hence the book is divided into three well-defined parts.

The first section of Berdyaev’s work is concerned with the theme of creation and the fall of humanity into a world of good and evil. Here Berdyaev rejects static theological conceptions of God in favor of a creator who must strive for perfection by creating the world from the mystic realm of the ungrund or realm of potential, a concept that Berdyaev took from the writing of Jakob Böhme. In Berdyaev’s thought, God is a striving spirit, and human beings are also free spirits who must struggle with the limitations of matter.

In the second part of The Destiny of Man, Berdyaev proceeds to discuss specific problems of ethics, focusing on such themes as social reform and sexuality. In essence, he sees human existence largely as a tragic conflict between spiritual striving and the material realm, but unlike thoroughgoing Gnostics, Berdyaev does not naïvely attribute evil to the concrete world of matter.

Finally, in the third and most inspiring section of The Destiny of Man, Berdyaev discusses death, immortality, and the apocalyptic transformation of life. Rejecting Greek ideas of the immortality of the soul, Berdyaev contends that Christianity must seek a transformed world, beyond the commonplace notions of good and evil, a realm created at the end of time involving the complete resurrection of the body in a spiritual form.

Christian Themes

At first glance, Berdyaev’s thinking may remind readers of the heterodox vision of the English poet William Blake, and this resemblance should not be entirely surprising, since both thinkers shared a common influence—the mysticism of Jakob Böhme. Moreover, both were passionately dedicated to the ideals of human freedom and creativity, and both believed in the need for positive action to transform society.

Though remaining close to the boundaries of orthodox Christian theology, Berdyaev’s work offers strong criticisms of certain traditional theologies, such as Thomism, that posit a creator who is omnipotent but who seems remote and dispassionate toward humanity. For Berdyaev, such a conception is overly rationalist and derives ultimately from Aristotle, not from Christian sources. Berdyaev shows a particular scorn for theologies that emphasize human weakness and are demeaning to the dignity of human beings. In this regard, both Roman Catholicism and classical Protestant Calvinism become targets of Berdyaev’s attack.

In the final summation, Berdyaev places the highest value on human personality and its potential to be creative in every sphere of life. Thoughtful Christians should find Berdyaev’s eschatological thought intriguing and provocative. Berdyaev does not present his vision of the final days in a superstitious tone or picture it as a coming event that inspires terror, as in Medieval Christianity or some forms of Christianity today. Rather, Berdyaev’s vision of the end is based on his concept of the different modes of time in which humans may live, and the achievement of eschatological events results from the partnership between the striving of human spirits and the action of God.

Sources for Further Study

Berdyaev, Nicolai. Dream and Reality: An Essay in Autobiography. Translated by Katherine Lampert. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1950. Berdyaev’s autobiography, whose Russian title means “self-knowledge,” focuses on intellectual issues and spiritual values, though it is rather slight in its treatment of personal details, such as comments on his marriage.

Dye, James. “Berdyaev.” In A Companion to the Philosophers, edited by Robert L. Arrington. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1999. Brief but insightful article on Berdyaev describes the theme of spirit in his work. Many of the other entries in this volume, such as the essay on Henri Bergson, should be of interest to readers of Berdyaev.

Lowrie, Donald A. Rebellious Prophet: A Life of Nicolai Berdyaev. London: Victor Gollancz, 1960. A sympathetic biography by a translator and disciple of Berdyaev, describing major intellectual themes in the work. Lowrie treats Berdyaev’s turn to the Russian Orthodox faith as an “evolution” rather than a conversion.

Ree, Jonathan, and J. O. Urmson, eds. The Concise Encylopedia of Western Philosophy. 3d ed. New York: Routledge, 2005. Contains an excellent brief entry on Berdyaev, describing major concepts in his work. Also offers helpful if terse essays on philosophers who had some influence on him as well as on major philosophical movements such as existentialism.

Slaatte, Howard A. Time, Existence, and Destiny: Nichoas Berdyaev’s Philosophy of Time. New York: Peter Lang, 1988. Readable and perceptive description of central themes in Berdyaev’s philosophical theology.

Vallon, Michel Alexander. An Apostle of Freedom: Life and Teachings of Nicholas Berdyaev. New York: Philosophical Library, 1960. A very informative biography in English. Vallon’s work presents Berdyaev in the context of Russian cultural history and deals in detail with his conversion.