Christianity in history has fallen into the most terrible sin, sin against the Holy Spirit. Christianity has blasphemed against the Spirit whenever it has recognized the Church as finished, Christianity as complete, creativeness as something forbidden and sinful. For life in the spirit can only be eternally creative, and every stop or stay in the creative dynamic of the Church is thus a sin against the Spirit.
- -- Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
Needless to say, many orthodox/traditional/conventional Christians are bound to regard Berdyaev's observation as blasphemy, but by doing so they actually confirm the root problem Berdyaev identifies in historical Christianity -- instead of regarding Christian tradition as the flow of eternal creativity that inspires creation, transformation, and the development of new things, orthodox/traditional/conventional Christians have turned tradition into something external and static.
According to Berdyaev, "The life of the Church has ossified, has cooled, almost to the point of death, and it can only be reborn in man's religious creativeness."
Unfortunately, the religious creativeness Berdyaev calls for is the same sort of religious creativeness orthodox/traditional Christians all conspire to deny.
Note added: The anti-God, anti-Creation "new things" that churches have introduced into Christianity over the past century or two, particularly in the past few decades, do not qualify as being part of the "flow of eternal creativity".
On the contrary, I would classify these "new things" as "demonic destructiveness", most of which have stemmed from the willing and active convergence of churches (and Christians).
At the same time, the development of this flow of demonic destruction might have a great deal to do with the churches' and tradition's failure to reveal Christianity as a religion of freedom and creativity -- a religion that is capable of overcoming the world and transforming being.
- -- Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
Needless to say, many orthodox/traditional/conventional Christians are bound to regard Berdyaev's observation as blasphemy, but by doing so they actually confirm the root problem Berdyaev identifies in historical Christianity -- instead of regarding Christian tradition as the flow of eternal creativity that inspires creation, transformation, and the development of new things, orthodox/traditional/conventional Christians have turned tradition into something external and static.
According to Berdyaev, "The life of the Church has ossified, has cooled, almost to the point of death, and it can only be reborn in man's religious creativeness."
Unfortunately, the religious creativeness Berdyaev calls for is the same sort of religious creativeness orthodox/traditional Christians all conspire to deny.
Note added: The anti-God, anti-Creation "new things" that churches have introduced into Christianity over the past century or two, particularly in the past few decades, do not qualify as being part of the "flow of eternal creativity".
On the contrary, I would classify these "new things" as "demonic destructiveness", most of which have stemmed from the willing and active convergence of churches (and Christians).
At the same time, the development of this flow of demonic destruction might have a great deal to do with the churches' and tradition's failure to reveal Christianity as a religion of freedom and creativity -- a religion that is capable of overcoming the world and transforming being.
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