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PERSON AND COMMUNION: THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF NIKOLAI BERDYAEV
A political and theological analysis of Nikolai Berdyaev's communitarian personalism. The book explores the four "pillars" of Berdyaev's philosophical freedom, creativity, person, and communion.
439 pages, Paperback
Published June 16, 2021
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November 8, 2025
Tsconchev is a fantastic scholar. His ability to absorb and relay Berdyaev’s philosophical and theological insights is on masterful display in this studious appraisal. I came out of this text not only understanding more of Berdyaev the man and demystifying his so-called “gnostic” ideas on freedom and communion, but also better apprehending the Russian intellectual milieu in and with which he commented and engaged. Berdyaev’s thinking was a product of the revolutionary spirit in Russia that was steered by Marxists and the Bolshevik’s and the conservatism and religiosity of Slavophile thinkers like Aleksey Khomyakov and Vladimir Solovyev, and Tsonchev adeptly illustrated his polemics against and sympathies with those ideological frameworks and thinkers. With that said, his analysis of Berdyaev was not an apologetic of his work. In the concluding chapter, Tsconchev brings him down back to Earth and offers charitable critique of his ideas. This was, imho, the defining mark of his competent scholarship.
As for Berdyaev, I was incredibly fascinated by his ideas. Berdyaev was a Christian at his core and his political theology immensely reflected that. God is the ground for liberty and creativity. Christ, the unity of deity and humanity, is the salvation for social and political antinomies. The Spirit is dynamic and radically free and unites and orders all of creation. And for Berdyaev, Orthodoxy is the faith that most aligns with human dignity and personalism. Even though I come from (more or less) a Presbyterian persuasion, I could not help but sympathise with his Orthodox convictions and suspicions of Western (Catholic and Protestant) leanings on formulating and interpreting the proper function and relationship between the State and the Individual. Moreover, having read several texts on Trinitarianism, I see the beneficial fruit of Berdyaev’s ideas of sobornost (communion) on the West’s rediscovery of the social implications of Trinitarian wisdom in modern theology (i.e. unity in diversity, diversity in unity).
For Berdyaev, the State and the Individual are equally ultimate and can only have their dignity preserved and actualised from a Trinitarian perspective. In this way, anarchic tendencies (elevating the Many over the One) destroy the individual and reduces him to an isolated, self-interested object in “associations” with other isolated, self-interested objects. On the flip side, socialism (elevating the One over the Many) destroys genuine brotherhood and reduces the collective to a mechanical gathering of inherently worthless objects into an impersonal, soulless “Absolute”. Only from a Christian perspective can the Individual, a person freely created by a radically free God, freely choose to fellowship with others in genuine, loving cooperation (participation).
Overall, I highly recommend this text. Tsonchev is a gifted scholar and an accessible author. His footnotes tremendously helped unpack some of the more philosophically heavy analyses of Berdyaev’s thought for me. I trust that one will come out knowing more about the Russian zeitgeist that Berdyaev sparred with and a healthy desire to seek out a distinctly Christian perspective on politics
As for Berdyaev, I was incredibly fascinated by his ideas. Berdyaev was a Christian at his core and his political theology immensely reflected that. God is the ground for liberty and creativity. Christ, the unity of deity and humanity, is the salvation for social and political antinomies. The Spirit is dynamic and radically free and unites and orders all of creation. And for Berdyaev, Orthodoxy is the faith that most aligns with human dignity and personalism. Even though I come from (more or less) a Presbyterian persuasion, I could not help but sympathise with his Orthodox convictions and suspicions of Western (Catholic and Protestant) leanings on formulating and interpreting the proper function and relationship between the State and the Individual. Moreover, having read several texts on Trinitarianism, I see the beneficial fruit of Berdyaev’s ideas of sobornost (communion) on the West’s rediscovery of the social implications of Trinitarian wisdom in modern theology (i.e. unity in diversity, diversity in unity).
For Berdyaev, the State and the Individual are equally ultimate and can only have their dignity preserved and actualised from a Trinitarian perspective. In this way, anarchic tendencies (elevating the Many over the One) destroy the individual and reduces him to an isolated, self-interested object in “associations” with other isolated, self-interested objects. On the flip side, socialism (elevating the One over the Many) destroys genuine brotherhood and reduces the collective to a mechanical gathering of inherently worthless objects into an impersonal, soulless “Absolute”. Only from a Christian perspective can the Individual, a person freely created by a radically free God, freely choose to fellowship with others in genuine, loving cooperation (participation).
Overall, I highly recommend this text. Tsonchev is a gifted scholar and an accessible author. His footnotes tremendously helped unpack some of the more philosophically heavy analyses of Berdyaev’s thought for me. I trust that one will come out knowing more about the Russian zeitgeist that Berdyaev sparred with and a healthy desire to seek out a distinctly Christian perspective on politics
Displaying 1 of 1 review