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Berdyaev Nikolai, On Social Inequality, transl. E. D. Nianios, P. Pournaras Publ., Thessaloniki, 1984, pp. 382.

The book constitutes a collection of 14 letters in which Berdyaev unfolds his ideas about social philosophy. The work is apologetic and at the same time a polemic. Initially he expresses criticism about the violent, equalizing nature of the Russian revolution, declaring that only a religious and spiritual revolution could be authentic. He declares himself against sociologism, claiming that society in all its forms is founded on religious and spiritual principles. In contrast to anarchy theories he defends the ontological nature of power and the state, which however must not be elevated to absolute or god-like status.

            In the fourth letter he rejects internationalism and recognises an ontological nucleus to the nation. In the fifth, he objects to radicalism, and stands in defense of conservatism, to which he attributes religious importance as a declaration of the hypostasis of the Father. He defends the aristocratic idea which calls for the dominance of the best ones, while the democracy calls for a perfunctory domination of all. Liberalism misses the mark by replicating the spiritual aims of life with material needs. He proposes the true freedom of the brotherhood of Christ, the Church. In the eighth letter he expresses criticism about the tendency for uniformity and the loss of creative and spiritual elements in democratic regimes.

            The material and totalitarian nature of socialism hinders recognition of social problems as spiritual and religious. Also, if socialism comes to naught because of its desire for equality, anarchism comes to the same end because of its desire for freedom devoid of depth.

            The eleventh letter refers to thoughts on war, while the twelfth seeks the spiritualization of economic life. He attributes a sacred quality to culture and differentiates it from civilization, which is of rationalistic and utilitarian nature. The aims of culture do not represent the higher purpose of life, which is to seek the Kingdom of God. But this search will not be the result of an evolution or a revolution, but a miraculous transformation of the world. The final chapter, written 5 years after the rest of the book, the author explains the historical conditions of the time of the writing, which had influenced his demeanor.

Nicolas Berdiaev, Kingdom of Spirit and Kingdom of Ceasar, transl. Vassileios Youltsis, Pournaras, Thessaloniki, 2002, pp. 241.

The Church’s existence in the world and its consequent theology is an enduring challenge for the human spirit. Thought and intellect struggle to find common ground of a philosophy beyond this world and the various intellectual trappings of the world and history, often framing high cultural forms but never addressing the initial antinomy. An antinomy, as understood and described by the great Russian Christian philosopher in his “essay” on “eschatological metaphysics” contained in the present volume.

This book contains a kind and dialectic of relationships between the “spiritual” and the “social”. An eternal problem which transcends, while at the same time contains, relationships of Church – State and which, in its various conceptualizations in the passage of history, was, a number of times, a measure of the understanding of Christian self-awareness.

For as long as history is plagued by the presence and action of evil and human civilisation does not pronounce the search for truth as its foremost quest, the kingdom of the spirit and the kingdom of Caesar will constitute two antinomic realities. The philosophical multiple vision, in its struggle to reveal the truth, rather confuses the issue further with its side philosophical views. The omnipotence of logic and the apotheosis of everything scientific constitute an ossification of life and a necrosis of the Truth, as triumph of the Spirit.

For the Christian experience the reality of the quest for the truth leads directly to the face of God and the spirituality that “deifies” humans. Humans and god, “the divine and the human” in a dialectic which purges all human-like forms of metaphysics and addresses itself to freedom for the construction of the kingdom of the Spirit.

The author looks carefully at the phenomenon of socialism and sensitivities for equality and social justice, but with a critical disposition towards the apotheosis of materialism, the worldly eschatology and the justification of cause and effectiveness, as advanced by the reality of Marxism.

The state and power function historically in Christian thought and the ecclesiastical reality in the form of primeval temptation. This has marked subjugation of the spirit and deprives humans from “seeing” God. This is the author’s most important critique of the modern world, with Marxist philosophy constituting its cutting edge. His call for a new mysticism, although not identical to the Christian call for the transformation of the world in Christ, neither with the Orthodox theological teaching of salvation and deification, would be wrong to be perceived as indecisiveness in the fields of theological narcissism and escape from reality.

Berdyaev Nikolai, Sources and meaning of Russian Communism, transl. E.D. Nianios, P. Pournaras Publ., Thessaloniki, pp. 269.

In the introduction of the book, titled “The Religious Idea of the Russian State”, Berdyaev claims that Russian communism has ethnic roots and for this reason, Marxism alone is insufficient knowledge for its comprehension. The Russian psyche was formed and sealed by the Orthodox Church. He describes in brief the development of ideas of Moscow as a third Rome, the ecclesiastical schism of the Old Believers in the middle of the 17^th century, the reformation of Peter the Great and the break up of the bonds of state administration – intellectuals and the people.

            In the first chapter he examines the character of the Russian intellectual class, the influences of German romanticism, the problem of belonging to either the East or the West and the Slavophiles. On to the second chapter, he approaches Russian nihilism and socialism and looks at personalities such as Bielinski, Dobroliubov, Tsernitsevski and Pissarev. The third chapter looks at Russian populism and anarchism and the ideas of Netsaev, Jerzinski, Bakounin, Lavrov, Michailofski, Tkatsev, Plechanov and Yeliabov. The subject of the fourth chapter is Russian literature of the 19^th century, the prophetic nature of which is evident in the work of Pushkin, Komiakov, Gogol, Blok, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Leodiev, Soloviev and Fedorov.

            The fifth chapter comprises of a discourse about the peculiar relationship between Russian Marxism and classical Marxism, as well as the various tendencies formed within Russian Marxism. In the sixth chapter follows a penetrating and critical approach to Russian communism and the October Revolution, and in particular Lenin’s personality and work.

            The final chapter of the book is titled “Communism and Christianity”. Here Berdyaev claims that communism is against all religions, as it represents a religion itself. He critically examines the anti-religious attitudes from Marx to Lenin and the reasons behind the religious persecutions conducted by the Soviet regime. He accuses the Church of historical errors that contributed to the success of communism, to which he attributes Judeo-Christian roots regarding its preaching on social issues. According to Berdyaev Christianity stands against bourgeois capitalism as well as atheist communism, but ought not to lose its social justice. He maintains that the struggle for the daily bread of others (social justice) is a spiritual and religious issue.

Berdiaev Nikolai, Christianity and Social Reality, transl. Vasilis T. Youltsis, P. Pournaras Publ., Thessaloniki, 1986, pp. 252.

After the translator and author’s preface, the first chapter of the book takes an in-depth look and a critical approach to Marxism. It examines its philosophical roots in the German idealism of Fichte and Hegel, the materialist view of history as a basic idea of Marxism, the critique of Feuerbach and Marx on religion as the opium of the masses and a means of exploitation and finally there is mention of the contradictions of Marxism.

            In the second chapter titled “The Religion of Marxism” the concept of proletarian messianism is developed and then follows a critique of the view that religion and particularly Christianity is a private affair. In the third chapter, while the author accepts class struggle as a fact, however, he offers a multi-level critique on the one-sidedness, dogmatism and contradictions of Marxist theory. According to Berdyaev Christianity ought to condemn exploitation of people by people and of class by class, to undertake supporting the oppressed and, against capitalism and communism, to make the economy serve people, not the opposite. The Christian Church must reverse views that it does not deal with social problems, ought to bring forth the spiritual dimensions of social problems.

            The fourth chapter counters the accusation against Christianity that it preaches passiveness to people directing them to God’s help for all their problems. On the contrary, Berdyaev claims that Christianity is a religion that leads to the interpretation of history as a dynamic course towards a higher purpose and which calls on humans to the active practice of justice. Humans ought to be creators in the image of the creator God.

            The last chapter of the book looks at the failures of Christians themselves to realize the high purposes of the Christian Gospel, but also thinks that Christianity cannot be judged by external facts. Finally, the author expresses the wish that Christians may stop raising obstacles in Christianity’s path.