Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

Berdyaev on The Most Terrible Sin Against the Holy Spirit

8/22/2022

4 Comments

 
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.    

4 Comments
ichor link
8/23/2022 00:29:54

Sounds right to me. I only recently understood what 'blasphemed against the Holy Spirit' meant. And that such a thing makes one unable to repent. I began to think this in the context of the globalists. Even if the door was left wide open for them, they could not. That the theologians were right, that there are such sins, that have that special awfulness and permanence.

Maybe this is going to far but maybe for globalists even false 'conspiracy theories' represent the Holy Spirit. Of course they fear the true ones but maybe they hate them all. All are someone sensing globalist dishonesty, one way or another. If anyone in these times marshals their entire self: their full humanity: their reason, their intuition, and their imagination they will begin to see 'Covid' for what it is, an attempt at a world takeover. But even if they don't get that far and merely think UFOs or something, still the globalists will fear that person a little. As being with as you say 'the flow of eternal creativity that inspires creation, transformation'.

Can I say that the power of Christ compels the globalists but the Holy Spirit sees them? And they feel it in their bones. Also in non-Christian cultures. Like depicted in Kurosawa's Ran where an evil warlord did
not just have a woman's tongue cut out he had her blinded as well.

They have done so much already in taking away Jesus but are not stopping there. From their perspective as the permanently damned, they have to take the Spirit away as well. They desire to metaphorically amputate from our consciousness the Spirit.

Reply
JMSmith link
8/23/2022 13:10:02

I would use the word development rather than freedom and creativity. Development to my mind implies the unfolding of something that was always present, although until now hidden, whereas freedom and creativity imply doing what you please and calling it Christian if you like. I sympathize with your opposition to hidebound ritualism, which I've called loving the wineskins more than the wine, but I also fear what we might call CINOs. You're far removed from American politics, but we have a species of politician who say they are Republicans but walk and talk like Democrats. We call them Republicans in name only, or RINOs. What I call CINOs are a big problem here in the States because there are so many Americans who are loyal to the "Christian" brand. They will therefore buy things that are labeled "Christian" and the CINOs have all sorts of "creatively" Christian things to sell.

I have long been allergic to the language of evangelical Christianity, but I have begun to see the merit of their phrase "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." My relationship with Christ is personal, and that is quite different than free and creative. Because it is personal, it may not look exactly like your relationship with Christ, but it is not just anything I would like it to be.

My son's girlfriend had a crazy roommate who would tell anyone who would listen about what turned out to be a fictitious boyfriend. I mention this bizarre story because it helps me understand the difference between a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a relationship with Christ that is anything I would like it to be. A real relationship is not "free" and "creative" because the other party has a say in the relationship, but it is always personal and individualized. That woman with her fictitious boyfriend was, on the other hand, perfectly free to create any relationship she liked.

Reply
bruce charlton
8/23/2022 16:42:54

These are my working 'definitions' of some of the key terms above:

Real human creativity (as opposed to idiosyncratic novelty) is both an addition to divine creation, and also fully in harmony with divine creation's purposes and nature.

(In the sense that JMS uses development, as unfolding of what was already there; real creativity needs to be more than that - which is superfluous. Real creativity needs to be something new, a contribution of Man to God's creation.)

Freedom is the capacity to create, in the above sense; it entails being a free agent - capable of autonomous thinking and choice. It is when a free agent chooses to join-with God that he becomes genuinely creative.

Also, the primary form of creativity is in thinking - not in action; because the primary reality is a kind of thinking. Strictly, creativity happens when a Man thinks from his divine self and in harmony with God's creation - in Heaven, resurrected Man is creative 'all the time'.

Reply
Francis Berger
8/24/2022 05:59:33

@ JM - My definitions of freedom and creativity mirror Bruce's, which to some extent connect well with Berdyaev's definitions.

Real freedom and creativity pit themselves against "in name only" and work to overcome "in name only". Christians are suspicious of freedom and creativity because they fail to understand these things within a deeply religious/ontological/metaphysical/Christian context.

Berdyaev believed Christianity would go through three epochs -- the Father (law), the Son (redemption and salvation), and the Spirit (creativity). While the first two were divine revelation from "up high", Berdyaev argued that man would have to reveal the third epoch to God. He also contended that if this did not occur, then Christianity would run into a dead end and ossify.

Your recent post about having the faith of exiles connects to these idea. Abandoning the autonomy Christians discovered in the modern era in favor or returning to the heteronomy of the past is no solution. We cannot go back, regardless of how much some may want to. Autonomy is not the problem. Our inability to channel our autonomy toward divine life and fellowship with the divine is the problem.

The paradox of freedom and creativity is that they insist upon self-determination but are also dependent upon relationships with God and others. Freedom that rejects relationships with God and others is not spiritual freedom but "freedom in name only", which is usually captivity to the objectified "in name only" world, evil, and sin.

A relationship with Jesus must be personal and individualized, but it must be a relationship based on true subjects meeting (the divine meeting the divine within us). Personal and individual is not enough. A master and a slave can have a personal and individualized relationship, but this is not a relationship of true subjects communing and forming a fellowship. Berdyaev posited that God was searching for his other. This other can only be discovered in freedom and creativity -- in answering the call to divine life and in co-participation in the creativity of God that triumphs over "in name only" non-being. Jesus did more than make redemption and salvation possible -- he also opened up the possibility for true freedom and creativity. Once we have been saved, we must asked ourselves what we have been saved for.

Traditional Christianity informs moderns that God has no need of man. Moderns have responded by declaring they have no need of God. Both are false premises and neither is tenable.

Freedom and creativity reveal that man needs God. Conversely, they also reveal that God needs man.

But this sort of thinking rankles most Christians who insist that the only way forward is to abandon autonomy (freedom), return to heteronomy, and submit to some form of impersonal religious hierarchy.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.