The old world of new history is ending and dissolving,
and an unknown new world is being born.
Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (Kiev, 1874 – Paris, 1948) worked and wrote in the first half of the 20th century, and witnessed the disappearance of the old imperial way of life in Russia, the First World War, and the communist revolution. After being expelled from Russia in the 1920s, he lived in Germany for several years, and then in France until his death. He closely observed the rise of fascism in Italy and national socialism in Germany, and survived the Second World War. He gathered leading philosophers, writers, artists, clergy, and people of various spiritual aspirations around him.
Teachings and Works
The main concerns of his philosophy can be classified into three areas: metaphysics, social relations, and the philosophy of history or historiosophy – as he called it – which explores the meaning of history. As a philosopher and writer, he was highly productive, publishing dozens of works in all three areas. Some of these Some of the most famous titles include: The Fate of Man in the Modern World, The Meaning of History, Spirit and Reality, The Philosophy of Inequality, The Self and the World of Objects, The Russian Idea, On the Value of Christianity and the Worthlessness of Christians, Self-Knowledge, and many others.
The work that has been translated the most is a small booklet titled New Middle Ages (published in 1923). In it, Berdyaev presents an almost prophetic vision of the end of an era, the modern era, which reached its peak in the 19th century, and the arrival of a new era, which he calls the new Middle Ages.
He established the analogy with the previous Middle Ages based on signs of the times, which he claimed were similar to those during the decline of the Hellenistic-Roman world. That was when centuries of barbarization began, and Europe underwent a complete transformation between the 4th and 8th centuries AD.
We live in an epoch analogous to the epoch of the ancient world. Back then, a vastly superior culture collapsed, greater than the culture we possess. The new era and civilization of the 19th century. I provisionally define our epoch as the end of a new history and the beginning of a new Middle Ages. (…) The historical day before the change from night always ends with great tremors and catastrophes, it does not pass quietly… The beginning of a new epoch is accompanied by barbarization.
Sensitive to the meaning and significance of the events he witnessed during the turbulent first half of the 20th century, Berdyaev seeks to apply historical experience in order to “read” the meaning of events and the direction in which the world is heading. He continues the traditional teachings about the historical cycles of India, China, Egypt, Greece, and recognizes signs that indicate that modern civilization is tired and devoid of guiding ideas, and that it inevitably must be replaced by a new, more vital culture.
The old world, which is crumbling and has no return, is the world of new history, with its rationalistic Enlightenment, its individualism and humanism, its liberalism and democracy, its national monarchies and imp With its imperialistic politics, its monstrous industrial-capitalist system of economy, its powerful technology and external values and achievements, its unrestrained and boundless lust for life, its godlessness and soullessness, its furious class struggle and socialism, as the culmination of the entire path of new history.
In this passage, we can recognize all the values that still hold true as contemporary, sixty years after Berdyaev’s death, although each of them has been thoroughly questioned as each has shown its dark side over the past decades.
The mention of humanism in the context of values that have become “exhausted” according to Berdyaev can be confusing to the reader. The humanism of the new history has been taken to an extreme in all spheres of culture and social life, leading to the denial of the human image… The nature of this humanism is exposed and revealed… If there is no God, there is no human being… Berdyaev strives to point out that the worldview that rejects the existence of God ultimately undermines human dignity… The emphasis on the transcendent and the elevation of human reason leads to anti-humanism, denying the most sublime aspects of humanity itself. In a way, the predominance of the rational aspect in individuals and culture has impoverished humanity, breaking its connection with its own roots in the transcendent.
However, Berdjajev, as a true philosopher of history, does not consider the departing period to be in vain, as he states: The new history was not lived through by chance; it involved great efforts of human beings and was a significant examination of human freedom. The affirmation of humanistic values was a crucial moment in the destiny of human spirit, and the experiences gained from it will not be in vain but will enrich humanity. The experience of freedom lived in the new history will enter the new Middle Ages, along with all the positive achievements of conscience and the great refinement of the soul. After experiencing the new history, it is impossible to return to the old Middle Ages; only a new Middle Ages is possible, just as it was impossible to go back to the Middle Ages after the experience of the medieval period. The possibility existed only for the Renaissance, which implied a very complex interaction between Christian and pagan principles.
The characteristics of this new medieval period, which Berdyaev recognizes and foreshadows, are partially comparable to the characteristics of the previous Middle Ages. We must avoid literal interpretation and recognize the internal content of events in order to understand what Berdyaev is talking about.
The collapse of antiquity and the barbarization of Europe in the early and dark part of the Middle Ages are primarily recognizable by the loss of connections, both physical (the decay of Roman roads, a symbol of the Empire’s connectivity) and deeper ones (the loss of a common Latin language, the isolation into smaller communities, the interruption of contacts between distant regions). This is a period of rare inhabited places, where travel is dangerous and travelers are exposed to the mercy or cruelty of bandits against whom authorities are powerless. Life is arduous, short-lived, always in danger of attack or hunger. The brilliance of ancient science and culture is only preserved in traces within rare monastic communities.
This will only begin to change with the strengthening of the Frankish state under the Carolingians, resulting in the well-known Carolingian Renaissance and the beginning of the Gothic period. From the 9th century onwards, the term “Dark Middle Ages” is no longer appropriate and is seen as a viewpoint of historians of the modern era, who saw the Enlightenment and its rationalism as the pinnacle of civilization.
A fundamental indicator of the decline of civilization is the loss of shared, commonly accepted values. Doubt arises regarding previously widely accepted beliefs. There are no longer spiritual or cultural centers from which such values radiate, and individuals form their own worldview by “gathering” from what is accessible to them. Thus, everyone has their own worldview, and cultural connections among people and nations are lost.
There is a massification of all aspects of social life, making it possible to govern through demagoguery, i.e., “flattery” of people’s desires. digs and superficial judgments.
Individualism, the atomization of society, insatiable lust for life, unlimited population growth and unlimited growth of needs, the decadence of faith, weakening of spiritual life – all of this has led to the construction of an individually capitalist system, which has changed the entire character of human life, its entire style, tearing human life away from the rhythm of nature. (…) Capitalism is perfectly impossible to imagine as a sacred economy, because it is precisely the result of the secularization of economic life. In this system, the true hierarchical subordination of the material to the spiritual is disrupted. The economism of our historical epoch is indeed the disruption of the true hierarchy of human society, the loss of spiritual center. The struggle for opposing interests, competition, deep loneliness and abandonment of every person are characteristics of the society of the new time.
The Shift of Eras
While proclaiming the decline of our civilization and the possible descent into barbarism that we already recognize, Berdyaev simultaneously It offers a perspective of emerging from darkness, building a new culture that can give greater significance to values that our time has not recognized.
We are well aware of all the negative and dark aspects of the Middle Ages – barbarism, cruelty, violence, slavery, ignorance in the sphere of positive knowledge about nature and history, religious terror associated with the horror of hellish torments… However, we also know that the Middle Ages were predominantly a religious era, filled with a longing for heaven, that all culture was directed towards the transcendental, that in those centuries there was a great effort of thought in scholasticism and mysticism to solve the ultimate questions of existence, a feat unmatched by the history of modern times, that the Middle Ages did not dissipate its energy on the superficial, but concentrated it on the interior and forged the individuality in the form of monks and knights, that in the barbaric times, the cult of the beautiful lady matured, and troubadours sang their songs… In fact, the culture of the Middle Ages was already a renaissance, a struggle against that barbarism and darkness. inner turmoil
In accordance with the ancient teachings on the cycle of history, Berdyaev speaks of day and night epochs, those in which reason, technology, and external values prevail, and those which may be materially scarce but are richer in spiritual terms. Many thinkers of our time have warned about the desecration of life that has befallen us as a logical consequence of rationalism. The feeling of time accelerating, causing it to slip away from us without being able to experience true human experiences, the sense of alienation even from our own family and friends, loneliness and abandonment, as Berdyaev says, are the consequences of the lack of an important aspect of our lives – the connection to our inner self, to the soul that feels the divine.
However, Berdyaev emphasizes that despite the signs indicating the arrival of the Middle Ages, we must strive not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
In the inevitability with which history moves, it is necessary to recognize the internal vibrancy We should explore the virtues that the Middle Ages, as a nocturnal epoch, possess and build a culture upon them in order to quickly overcome the period of barbarization.
The Middle Ages can be called the nocturnal epoch of world history. And by that, I don’t mean the “darkness of the Middle Ages” invented by the enlighteners of the new history…By the new Middle Ages, I mean the rhythmic alternation of epochs, the transition from the rationalism of the new history to the irrationalism of the medieval type.
These are organic and critical epochs, nocturnal and diurnal epochs, sacred and secular epochs. (…) Night is not less beautiful than day, it is not less divine. In the night, the stars shine brightly, and revelations occur that are unknown to the day. (…) In anticipation of the night, one must spiritually arm oneself for the struggle against evil, sharpen the ability to discern it, and build a new knighthood!
This is just a brief reflection on a work that, today, as we attempt to navigate a world that is irreversibly changing and taking on still unrecognizable forms. The new way of life is becoming increasingly relevant.
The Middle Ages are a symbol of the decline of culture, but Berdjajev says: In history, as well as in nature, there is a rhythm, a rhythmic interchange of periods and epochs, an alternation of cultural types, tides and ebbs, rises and falls, which promise the revival of a new and more meaningful culture, built on internal values. Now, when we clearly realize that our way of life can no longer continue in the same way, it is important to preserve historical experience, it is important to use it, because only in this way can man once again achieve Renaissance.