We Must Begin To Live Up To the Trust and Faith God Has in Us

2/2/2021

Berdyaev is important because he acknowledges a positive way forward for Christianity. Unlike most Christian thinkers, Berdyaev understands the positive way forward does not rely on theodicy, a justification of God, but rather on an anthropodicy, which is a justification of Man.

Creativity forms the core of Berdyaev's anthropodicy, which posits Man as a free, creative being, one capable of becoming an active co-creator with God. According to Berdyaev, Christianity has all but ignored or forgotten this truth.

For Berdyaev, the self-revelation of Man's latent divine creativity will occur primarily via the consciousness, which will grant Man a better and deeper understanding of his divine or real self. This final shift of consciousness will mark the final stage of Berdyaev's three epoch framework.

The first epoch represents the consciousness of sin; the second, the consciousness of redemption and salvation. The third epoch will be the consciousness of spiritual creativity. Unlike the first two epochs, the third will not be revealed from God above, but must be revealed by Man from within.

Berdyaev's emphasis on creativity does not de-emphasize redemption. On the contrary, the emphasis on creativity deepens and expands the meaning of redemption. Without creativity, the redemption Christ offers remains a freedom from; with creativity, Christ's gift of redemption inspires man to apply freedom from to manifest freedom for.

Man's consciousness of himself as a creative being is a divine calling that has yet to to be fully answered. Man has not yet answered this call because he lacks the confidence and courage to acknowledge the active and creative role he must play in the further development of Christian consciousness - in the enlargement and fulfillment of Christian Truth.

God awaits from us a creative act, but the true nature of creativeness is currently unknowable - it is something that must be lived. Redemption opens the possibility for creative freedom, but it provides no blueprint for creative freedom.

The anthropological revelation God awaits inspires fear and trembling in us. Those who question why a loving God would burden Man with such overwhelming freedom and responsibility rarely pause to consider what this burden of freedom and responsibility reveals about God's faith in Man.

Creativity goes beyond living up to our trust and faith in God; it inspires us to live up to the trust and faith God has in us.

11 Comments

bruce charlton

2/2/2021 17:01:07

The new 'face' may be more accurate, but We have to look at it! And this photo does have a chilling, hard-eyed interrogator, look about it...

Francis Berger

2/2/2021 19:40:16

@ Bruce - It took less than 24 hours to go from being called a beauty queen to being essentially called a psychopath! :)

Man, I regret this whole photo fiasco already. Having said that, I'd just like to draw your attention to this one key point - none of us would be jumping through these hoops if you hadn't commented snidely on William's decade-old photo!

Anyway, you're right. The new photo is rather intimidating. Believe it or not, that is pretty close my natural expression, which explains why I don't have many friends.

I've taken your hint and buried the pyscho photo in the Contact section. On the side bar I now have a photo of me warmly lit by a sunset. As you can see, I'm almost smiling, too.

2/2/2021 19:42:38

@ Bruce - Are you going to go after Wm now, too? I mean, if my image was intimidating, what do you call his?

2/2/2021 20:40:51

Excellent! You've gone from the Bad Cop interrogator to his 'Good' Cop colleague.

About Wm - what are you saying? That's the best photo of him I've seen, rather flattering. The problem is that it's just Too BIG.

Wm Jas Tychonievich link

2/3/2021 01:38:43

Theodicy, not theology — and I agree it’s not the way forward. I mean, when all is said and done, how could any of us moderns ever hope to improve on Theodicy of Homer?

Re pics, that really is about the most flattering one I have, which explains why my modeling career never took off! I owe the improvement to Bruce, who pointed out that most of my photos seem to be looking up my nose. The perils of having a much-shorter wife!

2/3/2021 04:31:14

@ Wm - Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out.

Carol

2/5/2021 21:00:02

I absolutely love this post!
And I wish you'd gotten more commentary on the content, because I think what you've written regarding Berdyaev's "epochs", particularly the "third epoch", is tremendously pertinent to (in Bruce's words) "Romantic Christianity"!

The whole post speaks to something I have been pondering for some time now - it's complicated, but basically, in regards the possibility that the world is entering the biblical 'end times' -

- perhaps the "creative act" (quoting you) which "God awaits from us", has to do with utilizing "the consciousness of spiritual creativity" (Berdyaev) to discover or to do something -
(by means of Bruce's "white magic"?) to open a way for the Powers of God to more fully enter this world, and thus ameliorate the eschaton..*

*note - if that sounds stupid, could you please delete everything after the first paragraph?
Thank you,
Carol

2/6/2021 17:53:17

@ Carol - It goes without saying that I support Bruce's Romantic Christianity as the way forward. The other bloggers with whom I am affiliated often employ Barfield and Steiner's ideas (among others) to expound upon Romantic Christianity. My posts about Berdyaev are attempts to add another dimension to the concept. I am not well-versed in either Barfield or Steiner, but I do see many similarities between their ideas and Berdyaev's ideas.

Pertaining to the biblical end times to which you refer, Berdyaev regarded the third epoch from an eschatological perspective; more specifically, he certainly believed the beginning of the third epoch would mark a definite end, but that this end would also mark a new beginning. In this sense, I do believe white magic and "creativity" can act as a positive force to ameliorate the eschaton.

NLR link

2/7/2021 06:17:35

Carol,

I completely agree that we should seek to work with God to bring forth goodness in the world. I view white magic not in terms of wish fulfillment or anything like that but as working with the forces of goodness both spiritually and physically.

I think we have to do something like that and there really are very few other options. So many of the solutions put forwards are woefully inadequate to deal with the problems we face. Apparently, the fix for the bonds of society being weaker than they have ever been in recorded history is investing in cryptocurrency (or something like that ...). If anything those who recognize the spiritual is vital are the practical ones because the other solutions just don't work.

What may or may not happen in the future is incalculable, but I agree that for each of us to try and find the ways we can work with God and His servants is one of the most valuable things we can do.

2/7/2021 05:56:24

Great post.
I particularly like Berdyaev's point about a positive way forward and the last three paragraphs.

2/7/2021 09:37:46

@ NLR - What I like about Berdyaev is his insistence on creativity being a positive value and a positive motivation. He does not view creativity as a freedom from, but rather a freedom for. In this sense, creativity is positive purpose. I find that particularly appealing.

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We Must Begin To Live Up To the Trust and Faith God Has in Us

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