THE “FATAL SEAL” OF RELIGIOUS IMMANENTISM: V. V. ZENKOVSKY’S EVALUATION OF N. A. BERDYAEV’S ESCHATOLOGICAL IDEAS

Abstract

Introduction. N. A. Berdyaev’s many-sided philosophical interests and his indefatigability in creative activity contributed to the development of an original worldview system, in which eschatological ideas were the basic part. The authors consider the assessment of these ideas by the outstanding historian of Russian philosophy V.V. A. Berdyaev, the significance of which is enhanced due to the fact that it was given not only by a historian of thought, but also by the creator of his own and generally complete philosophical system, based, like the philosophy of N. A. Berdyaev, on the ideological foundation of Orthodoxy. The purpose of the study. The authors attempt to identify the causes and motives for the discrepancy between N. A. Berdyaev’s eschatological ideas and the traditional Christian understanding of the “end of history”, which V. V. Zenkovsky strictly adhered to. Methods. As a general philosophical methodology, the authors use a personalistic approach, which was followed by both N. A. Berdyaev and V. V. Zenkovsky. The main premise of this approach is to affirm the free-creative activity of a person who, following his inner impulses is capable of changing the surrounding reality, both social and natural. The study also uses general scientific methods — analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization. Scientific novelty of the research. The authors’ conclusions regarding the fact that N. A. Berdyaev did not overcome the evolutionist historiosophical paradigm, which has retained its significance in Russian metaphysics since the publication of the early works of V. S. Solovyov, the founder of this direction, have scientific novelty. Results. The eschatology of N. A. Berdyaev should be considered transitional from immanent (evolutionary) to transcendent, since elements of pantheism were preserved in it. V. V. Zenkovsky drew attention to this, noting that the entire religious world of N. A. Berdyaev bears the “fatal seal” of religious immanentism. Due to the inconsistency of his beliefs with the general worldview of Christian transcendentism, which never essentially brought the Creator and creation closer together, V.V. Zenkovsky avoided assessing N.A. Berdyaev as an Orthodox philosopher.