Editing Nikolai Berdyaev (section)

==Philosophical work==
According to [[Marko S. Marković|Marko Marković]], Berdyaev "was an ardent man, rebellious to all authority, an independent and "negative" spirit. He could assert himself only in negation and could not hear any assertion without immediately negating it, to such an extent that he would even be able to contradict himself and to attack people who shared his own prior opinions".<ref name = "Markovic">Marko Marković, ''La Philosophie de l'inégalité et les idées politiques de Nicolas Berdiaev'' (Paris: Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1978).</ref> According to Marina Makienko, Anna Panamaryova, and [[Andrey Gurban]], Berdyaev's works are "emotional, controversial, bombastic, affective and dogmatic".<ref name="Makienko">{{cite journal |author1=Makienko, Marina|author2= Panamaryova, Anna|author3= Gurban, Andrey |title=Special Understanding of Gender Issues in Russian Philosophy |journal=Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences |date=7 January 2015 |volume=166 |pages=18–23 |doi=10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.476 |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |language=en|doi-access=free |url=http://earchive.tpu.ru/jspui/bitstream/11683/35441/1/dx.doi.org-10.1016-j.sbspro.2014.12.476.pdf }}</ref>{{rp|20}} They summarise that, according to Berdyaev, "man unites two worlds – the world of the divine and the natural world. ... Through the freedom and creativity the two natures must unite... To overcome the dualism of existence is possible only through creativity.<ref name="Makienko" />{{rp|20}}

[[David Bonner Richardson]] described Berdyaev's philosophy as [[Christian existentialism]] and [[personalism]].<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-8870-8_3 | doi=10.1007/978-94-011-8870-8_3 | chapter=Existentialism: A Personalist Philosophy of History | title=Berdyaev's Philosophy of History | date=1968 | last1=Richardson | first1=David Bonner | pages=90–137 | isbn=978-94-011-8210-2 }}</ref> Other authors, such as political theologian Tsoncho Tsonchev, interpret Berdyaev as "[[Communitarianism|communitarian]] personalist" and [[Slavophilia|Slavophile]]. According to Tsonchev, Berdyaev's philosophical thought rests on four "pillars": freedom, creativity, person, and communion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tsonchev |first1=Tsoncho |title=Person and communion: the political theology of Nikolai Berdyaev |date=2021 |publisher=McGill University |location=McGill University’s institutional digital repository |url=https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/cf95jh19g |access-date=19 March 2022}}</ref>

One of the central themes of Berdyaev's work was [[philosophy of love]].<ref name="Shestakov">{{cite book |last1=Shestakov |first1=Vyacheslav |author-link1=Vyacheslav Shestakov |editor1-last=Шестаков |editor1-first=В.П. |title=Русский Эрос, или Философия любви в России |trans-title=Russian Eros, Or Philosophy of Love in Russia |url=https://predanie.ru/shestakov-vyacheslav-pavlovich/russkiy-eros-ili-filosofiya-lyubvi-v-rossii/chitat/ |date=1991 |publisher=[[Progress Publishers]]|pages=5–18 |access-date=14 March 2021 |language=ru |chapter=Вступительная статья |archive-date=24 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924133203/https://predanie.ru/shestakov-vyacheslav-pavlovich/russkiy-eros-ili-filosofiya-lyubvi-v-rossii/chitat/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|11}} At first he systematically developed his theory of love in a special article published in the journal ''Pereval'' ({{langx|ru|Перевал}}) in 1907.<ref name="Shestakov" /> Then he gave [[gender]] issues a notable place in his book ''The Meaning of the Creative Act'' (1916).<ref name="Shestakov" /> According to him, 1) erotic energy is an eternal source of creativity, 2) [[eroticism]] is linked to beauty, and [[eros]] means search for the beautiful.<ref name="Shestakov" />{{rp|11}}

He also published works about Russian history and the Russian national character. In particular, he wrote about [[Russian nationalism]]:<ref>Quoted from book by [[Benedikt Sarnov]], ''Our Soviet Newspeak: A Short Encyclopedia of Real Socialism.'', pp. 446–447. Moscow: 2002, {{ISBN|5-85646-059-6}} (Наш советский новояз. Маленькая энциклопедия реального социализма).</ref>
{{Blockquote|The Russian people did not achieve their ancient dream of [[Moscow, the Third Rome]]. [[Raskol|The ecclesiastical schism of the seventeenth century]] revealed that the muscovite tsardom is not the third Rome. The messianic idea of the Russian people assumed either an apocalyptic form or a revolutionary; and then there occurred an amazing event in the destiny of the Russian people. Instead of the Third Rome in Russia, the [[Third International]] was achieved, and many of the features of the Third Rome pass over to the Third International. The Third International is also a [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Empire]], and it also is founded on an Orthodox faith. The Third International is not international, but a Russian national idea.}}

Though sometimes quoted as a [[Christian anarchist]] for his emphasis on theology and critique of statist and Marxist socialism, Berdyaev did not self-identify as such and differentiated himself from [[Leo Tolstoy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christoyannopoulos |first=Alexandre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rK-7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT49 |title=Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel |date=17 February 2022 |edition=Abridged |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |isbn=978-1-84540-663-9 }}</ref>

Nikolai Berdyaev's work is also featured in the dedication of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel [[Brave New World|"Brave New World"]].