Nikolai Berdyaev’s Articulation of an Orthodox Christian Existentialism in Relation to the Wider Existentialist Movement
Nikolai Berdyaev’s Articulation of an Orthodox Christian Existentialism in Relation to the Wider Existentialist Movement

Summary/Abstract: This paper argues that there is a form of existentialist thought that is specifically Christian Orthodox,found preeminently in the works of the Russian religious philosopher, Nikolai Berdyaev. Berdyaev himself has accepted the label of existentialist, although in a very particular way,and at the same time he embraced the faith and teaching of the Orthodox Church as an active and engaged member of it within the Russian Orthodox Church. In order to arrive at the Orthodox Christian specificity of Berdyaev’s existential thought I will first explain what I mean by ‘existentialism’, as it is a term that throughout its history has proven to be quite ambiguous, and controversial. Secondly, I will present Berdyaev’s view of the existentialist movement, and see what he shared with the movement and in what way he differentiated himself. Although the proper articulation of existentialism is a twentieth-century phenomenon, there is an existentialist sensibility found throughout the entire history of thought with which Berdyaev finds himself closer, than the twentieth- century variety, although there is a lot of overlap between this and Berdyaev’s thought as well. Thirdly, I will present the way in which Berdyaev`s existentialist thought was informed by his Orthodox Christian faith and how this was reflected in his own specific instantiation of existentialism.

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