Slavery and Freedom

I first became aware of Berdyaev's writings when I was a college philosophy major in the late 60s and early 70s. At that time, the philosophy of "existentialism" was something of a fad, and Berdyaev's work was - in my opinion - the best existentialist writing coming from a religious perspective, and Slavery and Freedom was the best and clearest summation of his thought. Most of Berdyaev's works have been long out of print, and it is gratifying to see that many of his best writings are now being reissued. I hope they find a wide audience in a new generation. Slavery and Freedem is essentially a critique of the various social and philosophical "idolatries" into which men fall, idolatries which Berdyaev describes as various forms of "slavery." Thus he speaks of the slavery of individualism, the slavery of socialism, the slavery of property and money ("the bourgeois spirit"), the slavery of aestheticism, the slavery of eroticism, the slavery of revolution, the slavery of nationalism, the slavery of communism, and so forth. Perhaps surprisingly coming from a theist, Berdyaev also speaks of "slavery to God." This list of various forms of slavery should suggest to the reader that Berdyaev was not a party man, was not a comfortable member of any collective "groupthink." Once described as a "mystical anarchist," Berdyaev's form of Eastern Orthodoxy was always held in suspicion by the religious authorities, and - despite his socialist political leanings - his intellectual independence also brought him into conflict with idealogues and bullies of the Left. For Berdyaev, the antidote to slavery is a commitment to freedom and creativity, both of which Berdyaev sees as grounded in the uncreated freedom and inner being of God. This mystical insight - threatening to religious dogmatists as well as secularists - governs Berdyaev's analysis of all social and philosophical problems, and is the key to his thought. In our age of Left versus Right, "progressive" versus conservative, Berdyaev's courageous refusal to tow the line with any form of dogmatism remains refreshing and timely even when presented within the context of the intellectual and political conflicts of the first half of the 20th century.