The End of Our Time

by Nikolai Berdyaev, Donald Atwater (Translator)

This book is the philosophical fruit of Nikolai Berdyaev's first-hand experience of, and reflections on, the crisis of European civilization in the aftermath of the Great War and the Russian Revolution. Berdyaev tells us that the modern age, with its failed Humanism, is being replaced by a new epoch: "the new middle ages," an epoch of darkness, an epoch of the universal night of history. Berdyaev asserts that this night is a good thing: in this darkness, which is a return to the mysterious life of the spirit, the destruction inflicted by the previous period of "light" will be healed: "Night is not less wonderful than day; it is equally the work of God; it is lit by the splendor of the stars and it reveals to us things that the day does not know. Night is closer than day to the mystery of all beginning"

This edition also includes an essay on "The General Line of Soviet Philosophy."

Genres: Philosophy, Russia, Nonfiction, History, Politics

258 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev was born at Kyiv in 1874 of an aristocratic family. He commenced his education in a military school and subsequently entered the University of Kiev. There he accepted Marxism and took part in political agitation, for which he was expelled. At twenty-five he was exiled from Kiev to the north of Russia and narrowly escaped a second period of exile shortly before the Revolution. Before this, however, he had broken with Marxism in company with Sergius Bulgakov, and in 1909 he contributed to a symposium which reaffirmed the values of Orthodox Christianity. After the October Revolution he was appointed by the Bolshevists to a chair of philosophy in the University of Moscow, but soon fell into disfavour for his independent political opinions. He was twice imprisoned and in 1922 was expelled from the country. He settled first in Berlin, where he opened a Russian Academy of Philosophy and Religion. Thence he moved to Clamart near Paris, where he lectured in a similar institution. In 1939 he was invited to lecture at the Sorbonne. He lived through the German occupation unmolested. After the liberation, he announced his adhesion to the Soviet government, but later an article by him published in a Paris (Russian) newspaper, criticising the return to a policy of repression, was tantamount to a withdrawal of this. He died at Clamart March 24, 1948.

Reviews

[Mz · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.fractalart.gr/o-christian...

[kurp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doskonałe! Chwilami nieco niedzisiejsza, ale warto czytać całość, bo w ogólnym rozrachunku zadziwiająco aktualna. Niektóre myśli, jak choćby kwestia utopii (kto tak naprawdę był w historii utopistą i jaki świat dziś zbudować łatwiej), nabierają dziś nowych znaczeń. Sama koncepcja Nowego Średniowiecza (nie w prymitywnym, ale właśnie bierdiajewowskim rozumieniu) nad wyraz aktualna. Przydałby się kolejny Lech Jęczmyk, który przyłożyłby tę koncepcję do świata za oknem, żeby pokazać, jak bardzo jest celna.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting essay about a coming new "religious", "irrational" world, a new "middle ages." Some Maistrian notes perhaps??? Contact with the Bolshevik revolution, woman's role in the new age and the Tyutchev citations that tie this new period to the force of "twilight", "night."

"В предчувствии ночи нужно духовно вооружиться для борьбы со злом, обострить способность его различения, вырабатывать новое рыцарство. Прилив растет и быстро нас уносит / В неизмеримость темных волн... / И мы плывем, пылающею бездной / Со всех сторон окружены..."

[Mike_msc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Назвав наступающее время средневековьем автор был несколько оптимистичен

[Zuza Augustyniak]

nie mnie oceniać, aczkolwiek ciekawa perspektywa

[Dariusz Płochocki · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Kaźda rewolucja jest ohydna. Każda rewolucja jest nieudana. Nigdy w historii nie było udanych rewolucji."
Wyprawa z Bierediajewem w lata 20 rosyjskiej myśli emigracyjnej to zmierzenie się z dziełem tak bliskim Spenglerowi, a jednocześnie tak mocno nacechowany, myśleniem teologiczny, prawosławnym. Wielu sprowadza jego sławny esej o Nowym Średniowieczu, że chce jego powrotu, widać mało kto dokładnie go czyta... Wielu widziało gloryfikacje rycerstwa, które madchodzi od strony faszyzmu, ale to jest jego krytyka, pokazuje faszyzm, jako drugą stronę komunizmu, kolejny projekt humanizmu, u skraju nowożytności, której widać już koniec.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

First section on the Renaissance is very interesting - the rest is somewhat dated.

[Grigory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Бердяев часто ошибается в предсказании мелких деталей, но очень верно прозревает что-то важное.