A portrait of the traditions and interior life of Russian Orthodox spirituality.

In this book, Nikolai Berdyaev examines the struggle against slavery in its diverse forms. When he speaks of slavery and freedom, although he also uses these terms in a political sense, the underlying meaning is metaphysical: for Berdyaev, political slavery and freedom are rooted in our metaphysical slavery and freedom. The philosophy of this book is deliberately personal; it is a philosophy of personalism. As a philosopher, Berdyaev not only wished to gain knowledge of the world, but also to change the world: he always denied that the things which the world presents to us are a stable and final reality; this also goes for the relation between slavery and freedom. For Berdyaev the spiritual liberation of man is tied to the realization of personality; it is the attainment of wholeness. The Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948) was one of the greatest religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His philosophy goes beyond mere thinking, mere rational conceptualization, and tries to attain authentic life itself: the profound layers of existence that are in contact with God's world. Berdyaev directed all of his efforts, philosophical as well as in his personal and public life, at replacing the kingdom of this world with the kingdom of God. According to him, we can all attempt to do this by tapping the divine creative powers which constitute our true nature. Our mission is to be collaborators with God in His continuing creation of the world. This is what Berdyaev said about himself: "Man, personality, freedom, creativeness, the eschatological-messianic resolution of the dualism of two worlds - these are my basic themes."

This book is about Divine Humanity, man's creative collaboration with God in the world. Nikolai Berdyaev's reflections on Divine Humanity lead him to outline a dramatic philosophy of destiny, a philosophy of existence which unfolds in time and passes over into eternity, into a state which is not death but transfiguration. He describes his method as existentially anthropocentric and spiritually religious; the dialectic of this book is a dialectic not of logic but of life, a living existential dialectic. He emphasizes that man must not only await a divine-human revelation, but work creatively to achieve one.

Written at the beginning of the world apocalypse which was World War II, The Beginning and the End is Nikolai Berdyaev's main book on eschatology. He describes his book as an "essay in the epistemological and metaphysical interpretation of the end of the world, of the end of history"; hence he calls it an "eschatological metaphysics." For Berdyaev the end of the world is a divine-human enterprise: man not only endures the end, but he also prepares the way for it. Man's creative activity is needed for the coming of the kingdom of God: God is in need of this activity and awaits it. Berdyaev tells us that the eschatological outlook is not limited to the prospect of the end of the world; it embraces every instant of life. This is how he puts it: "What one needs to do at every moment of one's life is to put an end to the old world and to begin a new world."

In The Way of a Pilgrim, an unknown pilgrim describes his wanderings through mid-nineteenth century Russia and Siberia, from one holy place to another, in search of the way of prayer. R. M. French's superb translation conveys the charm of the original text, as well as brilliantly communicating the spiritual truths of the gospel. In the much-loved sequel, The Pilgrim Continues His Way, the narrator shares more of his story, as desire burns within him to discover deeper experiences of prayer, and to draw closer to the heart of God.