Jedliński, who has previously published on Julius Evola, René Guénon, and Traditionalism, terms Berdyaev a “traditionalist” and compares him in several respects with Guénon, especially with regard to their understandings of modernity and democracy. Berdyaev even wrote of a “democratic ideology of quantity” (48). There are certainly interesting parallels, but in the end Berdyaev was not a perennialist, even if he was an anti-modernist.
Jedliński’s article raises the question of what Guénon and Berdyaev thought of each other’s work. They both lived in Paris at the same time, and Berdyaev’s key Le Nouveau Moyen-Âge (The New Middle Ages) was published in French in 1924. Berdyaev was friends with Jacques Maritain, at one point Guénon’s sponsor. Yet Guénon never seems to have mentioned Berdyaev, nor Berdyaev Guénon.
2 comments:
It looks like Guénon did mention Berdyaev in his writings at least twice, but has written his name differently (Berdiaef or Berdiaeff) :
* Études sur la Franc-Maçonnerie et le Compagnonnage, tome 1, René Guénon, éd. Éditions Traditionnelles, 1971, p. 161, November 1930. Guénon says: "Dans le numéro du 3 août, une note intitulée La Rose-Croix du XXe siècle, mais où il n’est nullement question de Rose-Croix, débute par un résumé de l’histoire du « Martinisme » en Russie à l’époque même de Saint-Martin, et se termine par une accusation de « luciférianisme » contre le philosophe Vladimir Soloviev et ses « disciples », MM. Dmitri Mérejkovsky, Nicolas Berdiaef et Valentin Spéransky. À force de voir du « diabolisme » partout, les rédacteurs de la R.I.S.S. finiront peut-être par n’être pas bien sûrs de n’en être pas eux-mêmes plus ou moins entachés !". Berdyaev is mentioned as an alleged indirect "disciple" of Saint-Martin.
* Letter to Dr. Duby (Dr. Fabre), with the date 24 january 1938, Guénon says: "Soloview ou Soloviov (les noms russes se transcrivent de bien des façons diverses) est bien celui dont il est question dans le « Théosophisme » ; c’était effectivement un personnage assez extraordinaire par bien des côtés, et certainement très « slave » ; je trouve qu’il y a quelque parenté d’esprit entre lui et Berdiaeff". It's not clear whether Guénon makes or not a distinction between Vladimir Solovyov, the christian philosopher, and his elder brother Vsevolod Solovyov, the novelist and former theosophist who published a book critiquing Mme Blavatsky that served as documentation for Guénon's book on Theosophism. It looks like Guénon didn't have a good knowledge of Berdyaev's work, because even if he's been profoundly influenced by the Christian theosophy of Jacob Boehme, as Vladimir Solovyov, he rejected Solovyov's concept of the "Eternal Feminine", as he considered it a pagan influence that corrupted the correct interpretation of Jacob Boehme.
Samir, thank you!
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