Francis Berger
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Berdyaev's Epoch of Religious Creativeness

5/15/2019

8 Comments

 
In his writings, Nikolai Berdyaev divided history into three great religious epochs: Old Testament law, New Testament redemption, and religious creativeness. According to Berdyaev, the religious epoch of Old Testament law was marked by obedience and the sin of disobedience. New Testament redemption saved Man from sin, revealed his god-like nature to him, and offered him the reality of everlasting life. The third epoch, religious creativeness – which Berdyaev defines as “a transition into another sphere of being” – has yet to begin.

Berdyaev values the first two religious epochs and insists upon their necessity in the development of human consciousness. In essence, he considers them stages on the spiritual road. Old Testament law is the moral realm of ‘thou shall’ and ‘thou shall not.’ The commandments come from above and Man’s chief occupation is obedience and adherence to the law. New Testament redemption is the realm of salvation whereby the moral element is mystically transfigured and love and grace shine forth. Man’s innate divinity is also revealed to him in this epoch.

Berdyaev notes that both of these religious epochs essentially “come from above.” The moral element is not as predominant in New Testament redemption as it is in Old Testament law, but the moral still apparently predominates over the aesthetic and perceptive. In other words, salvation or perdition is connected to Man’s moral perfection, but not with his aesthetic or perceptive perfection.

Berdyaev considers this to be a “tormenting problem to Christian consciousness.” If religious life is complete with redemption from sin, then higher creativity being is both unattainable and undesirable. Atonement for sin becomes the only meaningful focus, which reduces New Testament redemption to the level of Old Testament law. Life is diminished back to the imperative of perfect obedience. Berdyaev insists there is only one way out: “the religious acceptance of the truth that the religious meaning of life and being is not wholly a matter of redemption from sin, that life and being have positive, creative purposes.”

This religious acceptance of life and being having positive and creative purposes marks the beginning of what Berdyaev terms the third religious epoch. Though there have been a handful of individuals who have shown glimpses of these kinds of positive and creative religious purposes, the third religious epoch has yet to manifest in the world. The question is why hasn’t it? Why have we been unable to step over the threshold? Berdyaev’s answer to this question is rather surprising.

Old Testament law and New Testament redemption are grounded in contact from above and are based on Holy Scripture. To put it bluntly, instructions and examples are provided. Yet, Holy Scripture does not address human religious creativity. According to Berdyaev, God has provided Man very little information about religious creative activity. When it comes to creativeness, Man is, as it were, left to himself alone, and has no direct aid from God.

This of course may help explain why the creative religious upsurge has not yet taken place, but as far as Berdyaev is concerned, God’s refusal to reveal the mystery of creativeness to Man demonstrates great wisdom and love. On the one hand, it keeps creativeness from sinking to level of mere obedience. On the other hand, it reveals God’s faith in freedom and in Man.

Man lives in the Father and the Son, but Berdyaev defines religious creativeness as “living in Spirit.” He asserts that unlike the previous two religious epochs, religious creativeness is something we must figure out on our own. Rather than be daunted by the task, we should embrace this mystery as a sign of God’s inherent wisdom and love.

"The anthropological revelation which has its origins in Christ is finally completed in Spirit, in the free creative activity of man living in the Spirit. Creativeness is not yet revealed in either the law or the redemption; neither in the Old nor in the New Covenant of God with Man. The secret of creativeness is revealed in the Spirit; in the Spirit, man’s nature is known, without Scriptures, without commandments, or directives from above. In creativeness the divine in Man is revealed by man’s own free initiative, revealed from below rather than above.”

We certainly have our work cut out for us, don’t we?
8 Comments
David Smith
5/16/2019 05:41:42

Berdyaev left us with quite a mass of articles and books. Can you suggest a few that will expand on this idea of the third age?

Reply
Francis Berger
5/16/2019 11:25:53

@ David - Thanks for your question. Let me preface my response by stating that I am not an expert in Berdyaev. I first read Berdyaev about a decade ago, and I am currently making my way through the three Berdyaev books I own - Slavery and Freedom, The Meaning of the Creative Act, and Freedom and the Spirit.

Of the three, The Meaning of the Creative Act addresses the third epoch the most. However, the book is not primarily about the epoch itself, but more about the creative act as a means to achieve it.

As I mentioned above, I am no expert when it comes to Berdyaev. I write posts about him on this blog to help me clarify my own thoughts and observations as I read.

I have not read the titles below, but a cursory inspections suggest they MAY focus more on the third epoch:

The Beginning and the End
The Divine and the Human

I plan to purchase these in the near future. In the meantime, a good resource can be found in the link below (though I am sure you are already aware of this).

http://www.berdyaev.com/

The essay below compares the Kingdom of Caesar to the Kingdom of God. It's an interesting read.

http://www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1925_303.html

Reply
David Smith
5/16/2019 13:48:11

@Francis - That's a good start for me...thanks.

I've been following your posts on Berdyaev with interest, but it's the Barfield connection that I noticed in this (and that Bruce Charlton mentioned below) that moved me beyond simply reading to (gasp) ask a question!

Bruce Charlton
5/16/2019 13:28:21

It sounds like B. converged upon the same broad description of 'evolution of consciousness' as Steiner and Barfield - the third age being that which Barfield calls Romanticism.

Does B. state *why* (by his understanding) there are these three eras? What makes them happen, and what are they for?

(ie. What is the ultimate goal for Man, and how do these eras relate to it?)

Reply
Francis Berger
5/16/2019 13:59:09

@ Bruce - Berdyaev is fascinating. I am certainly no expert, but I believe you will find many parallels to Steiner and Barfield. There is much in B to support your concept of Romantic Christianity as well.

As far as I understand Berdyaev, each epoch is a stage in the development of consciousness. I am not exactly certain what causes them to begin and end ( I just rereading B's work this week). In any case,

Old Testament law taught man about sin and obedience / good and evil. (Epoch One - the Father).

New Testament redemption saved man from the burden of sin and expanded consciousness to include grace and love as well as life-everlasting. (Epoch Two - the Son)

The ultimate goal for Man in the third epoch is to become a co-creator with God through the recognition and utilization of what B refers to creativeness in "personality." The goal is to establish a new form of "being" here on Earth, one in which Man uses his creativity to work with God. You could consider this stage sort of spiritual adulthood, and B DOES also refer to it as a Romantic impulse! (Epoch Three - the Spirit).

According to B, this is a stage we must complete ourselves - God is waiting for us to do it (after we have incorporated the other two stages, of course).

As I mentioned above, B is fascinating. His ideas appear to be completely in tune with Romantic Christianity. I humbly suggest examining his work if you have not already done so.

Reply
Francis Berger
5/16/2019 14:06:12

@ David - My pleasure. Aside from what Bruce has written on his blog, Barfield is a massive blind spot for me. I really need to familiarize myself with his work.

I revisited Berdyaev recently because so many of B's themes and ideas resonate with the themes and ideas Bruce explores and writes about. Perhaps Berdyaev's work can add something meaningful to Romantic Christianity.

Reply
John Fitzgerald link
5/17/2019 18:53:43

Really insightful post and discussion. Funnily enough I've got an essay on exactly this topic appearing soon in the American journal, 'Jesus the Imagination.' It's called 'Berdyaev and Tarkovsky: The Apocalypse and the Zone' and it deals precisely with Berdyaev's notion of the Third Age.

Keep up the good work, John.

Reply
Francis Berger
5/17/2019 20:32:01

Thanks for the kind words, John. I am still a novice when it comes to Berdyaev, but I find his work very engaging. Congratulations on the essay publication. I look forward to reading it when it appears.

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