BETWEEN FAITH AND FREEDOM (THE EMANCIPATION OF PHILOSOPHY IN N.A. BERDYAEV)

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between philosophy and religion within the overall philosophical concept of Nikolai Berdyaev. The problematic nature of this relationship is of exceptional importance for understanding the foundations of his philosophical worldview. One of the aspects that distinguishes Berdyaev from other thinkers and makes him a bearer of “philosophical novelty” is precisely his interpretation of the connection between philosophy and religion. In relation to the question posed, the emancipation of philosophy itself as a distinct sphere of human spirituality is of crucial importance for Berdyaev – as an existential act aimed both at the search for meaning and at the transformation of the world in accordance with that meaning. This pivotal concept in his philosophy makes his view of philosophy unparalleled in the history of philosophical thought. Berdyaev’s assessment of religion is carried out through the prism of one of his key concepts, namely objectification. It is objectification that introduces tension into the philosophy – religion relationship. Objectified religion is religion as it has historically taken shape; it can be interpreted sociologically, and its language is that of theology, which in essence represents rationalized religiosity. To this “official religion,” Berdyaev opposes the emotional intuitiveness of authentic religious feeling. In turn, philosophy, when considered in its claims to scientific status, is also objectified; according to Berdyaev, it has broken its organic connection with being, which in turn prevents it from grasping religion in its original essence. Authentic philosophy, for Berdyaev, is an existential act of the spirit aimed at a breakthrough beyond the framework of the causal determinism of the world, and as such it cannot be scientistic in nature; it is prophetic in character and has an eschatological perspective. These characteristics underline its genetic affinity and similarity with authentic religion and make possible the unity between the two as different manifestations of the human spirit in its search for meaning and truth.