Different concepts of personality

Nikolaj Berdjaev and Sergej Bulgakov

Regula M. Zwahlen

pp. 183-204

in: Regula M. Zwahlen (ed), Sergej Bulgakov, the 'awakening giant' of Orthodox Theology, Studies in East European Thought 64, 2012.

Abstract

The main concern of both Berdjaev's and Bulgakov's philosophical strivings consists in developing a concept of the person as the foundation of human dignity and creativity within a Christian worldview. Once attracted by Marxism with its emphasis on human dignity and social justice, they started to struggle against Marxism's atheist materialism because of its lack of a concept of person. However, the same concern will lead both thinkers down very different paths with different consequences. This paper argues that, even though Berdjaev has become famous as a philosopher of the person and a herald of creative ethics, Bulgakov developed a more solid Christian justification of the same claims. Both systems are presented by means of comparing some crucial notions within their concepts of personality—potentiality, trinity and autonomy.

Cited authors

Berdjaev Nikolaj