The Main Issue of Nikolai Berdyaev's Philosophy
Nikolai Berdyaev's philosophical views inherently include the insoluble contradiction in terms of formal logic which he consciously postulates. On the one hand, the existence is adamantly negated as hostile to man, that is substantiated by the metaphysical dualism of God and uncreated freedom. On the other hand, the existence is asserted as goodness, immanent in God and man, based on strict philosophical monism and pantheism. However, this contradiction is removed in the development of integral and creative personality acquiring religious experience. The Russian philosopher calls this process «existential dialectics». He presents it as the essence of Christianity in which human creator must take the central place. Here N. Berdyaev's perfectism, being well-grounded in the Christian tradition, has nothing in common with Satanism and the heresy of anthropotheism, though objectively it comes into conflict with the so called historical Christianity. According to N. Berdyaev the main formula of Gnosticism does not represent the ultimate truth, but constitutes the irremovable and inherent moment in the dynamic picture of Christian consciousness development and serves as the engine of the revolutionary process of natural and social world radical transfiguration.