Abstract
This study aims at showing how at the basis of Nikolai Berdyaev’s criticism of capitalism and Marxism lays the concept of Imago Dei. The Russian religious philosopher puts forward the Imago Dei as fundamental to the Christian understanding of human dignity. Berdyaev believes that in both capitalism and Marxism an objectification of the person takes place, and therefore a denial of basic human dignity. Berdyaev’s criticism of capitalism refers to its internal principles, partly building on Marx’s early criticism of capitalism. Although he shared some of the same concerns with Marx and other Marxist theorists, ultimately his was a critique from a Christian perspective that was deeply humanistic, whereas Marxism in its Hegelian orientation had failed in achieving what Berdyaev understands as true humanism. Having confronted and engaged both systems of thought during his own life, Berdyaev’s insights are most interesting, and I argue in this paper that they are also relevant for our own reflections on these subjects today.
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Notes
In the case of Berdyaev’s works I chose to also give the year of the original publication of the work in square brackets [ ]. Where there are no square brackets, the year of the used edition coincides with the year of the original publication.
Bulgakov, like Berdyaev, had a similar evolution from Marxism to Christianity through Idealism. Having taught political economy at Moscow and Kiev, he was regarded as one of Russia’s leading Marxist intellectuals. After a spiritual crisis in 1900 he moved away from Marxism and embraced Christianity. In this period he also had a significant influence on Berdyaev’s own conversion to Christianity. Bulgakov’s conversion culminated in his ordination to priesthood in 1918; he eventually became one of the leading theologians of the 20th century.
Berdyaev proposes the term of meonic freedom to express freedom in the abolute sense. The term meonic comes from the Greek το μη ον which means that which is not, or nothingness. He understands it as the primordial freedom undetermined by God, but in which God participates and out of which he brings forth the creation. It is the freedom that underlines both God’s and human existence.
The discovery of Karl Marx’s early unpublished writings called the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, represented a major event in French Catholic intellectual circles in the 1930s. Published for the first time in German in 1932, they were popularized by Auguste Cornu in France through the publication of his book Karl Marx: l’homme et l’oeuvre in 1934. Catholic intellectuals such as Marcel Moré, Paul Vignaux, Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier saw in the work of young Marx the source of a humanist critique of capitalism, but also anti-communism, that could be put to use in Catholic social teaching. Berdyaev himself was closely associated with these thinkers, especially with Maritain, but also with Mounier and his personalist-oriented journal Espirit. As it has been remarked, “Esprit arguably did more to make known the thought of the young Marx than did the Communist Party” (Curtis 2000, 82). Berdyaev was one of the contributors to the first issue of the journal in October 1932 with an article entitled Vérité et mensonge du Communisme. Without a doubt Berdyaev played an important part in the 1930s conversation on the reevaluation of Marx in France, bringing his unique voice and the experience of Russian Marxism. For more on the issue of Marx’s reception in 1930s French Catholicism see Curtis (2000, 73–96).
Berdyaev makes a couple of very appreciative remarks on Lukacs’s philosophical ideas and interpretations of Marx. Particularly Berdyaev had in mind Lukacs’s book Geschichte und Klassenbewußtsein—Studien über marxistische Dialektik (1923), translated into English as History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics. Berdyaev recommends this book in two of his articles in the journal Put’: “Personalism and Marxism” (1935) and “The Problem of Man: Towards the Construction of a Christian Anthropology” (1936), as well as in his book The Origins of Russian Communism (1937). This shows that Berdyaev was engaged and interested in the development of Marxist theory well into the later part of life.
Both terms are used in the English translations of Berdyaev’s works and both represent the same reality that characterizes the bourgeois class.
In some of his writings Berdyaev uses the term “socialism” to name the same ideals as were typical of Marxism, although he makes distinctions between different types of socialism. If in some quotes given here the term “socialism” is unqualified, it is safe to assume that it refers to what we may call the spirit of Marxism.
Shigalev is a character in Dostoevsky’s novel The Demons. His character was constructed to personify Russian socialist thinking. He is a social theorist and revolutionary who designed a dehumanizing social system.
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Bodea, RO. Imago Dei as a critique of capitalism and Marxism in Nikolai Berdyaev. Stud East Eur Thought 73, 77–93 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09379-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09379-x