Although I do not agree with everything Berdyaev assumes, I admire him for understanding that freedom could only be truly free if it were placed outside of God, which he accomplished by arguing for the existence of the Ungrund, a reworking of Böhme’s primordial abyss that Berdyaev defines as pure meonic freedom, a formless chaos of potential that existed before God and from which God emerges through a self-caused act of will and becomes being.
Unlike traditional Christians, Berdyaev claims that God then created from the Ungrund rather than ex nihilo. Thus, all beings in Creation share the same uncreated freedom that God possesses. That uncreated, meonic freedom inherent in all created beings contains the capacity for both good and evil. Although God was able to master this freedom for good only, the beings he creates fall short. Hence, the existence of free choice for evil in Creation.
Although I respect Berdyaev for recognizing that freedom must be outside of God for it to be authentic, I am inclined to think his insistence on placing the reality of freedom before being posits an unlikely state. Can freedom or the potential for freedom even exist outside of being? If it can, then it is pure potential, which is exactly what Berdyaev argues. But what is potential if it does not exist within something to potentiate?
For me, it seems simpler and more comprehensible to envision freedom existing within Beings; more precisely, within Beings that have no beginning and no end. With this in mind, I see Berdyaev’s Ungrund more as a primordial, pre-Creation chaos containing eternal (not timeless but having no beginning and no end) spiritual beings who innately possess freedom.
Instead of emerging from an Ungrund of meonic freedom, God emerges from a primordial chaos of eternal beings through a self-caused act of freedom and creativity. God then shapes and forms the eternal Beings of the primordial chaos into Creation.
Unlike traditional Christians, Berdyaev claims that God then created from the Ungrund rather than ex nihilo. Thus, all beings in Creation share the same uncreated freedom that God possesses. That uncreated, meonic freedom inherent in all created beings contains the capacity for both good and evil. Although God was able to master this freedom for good only, the beings he creates fall short. Hence, the existence of free choice for evil in Creation.
Although I respect Berdyaev for recognizing that freedom must be outside of God for it to be authentic, I am inclined to think his insistence on placing the reality of freedom before being posits an unlikely state. Can freedom or the potential for freedom even exist outside of being? If it can, then it is pure potential, which is exactly what Berdyaev argues. But what is potential if it does not exist within something to potentiate?
For me, it seems simpler and more comprehensible to envision freedom existing within Beings; more precisely, within Beings that have no beginning and no end. With this in mind, I see Berdyaev’s Ungrund more as a primordial, pre-Creation chaos containing eternal (not timeless but having no beginning and no end) spiritual beings who innately possess freedom.
Instead of emerging from an Ungrund of meonic freedom, God emerges from a primordial chaos of eternal beings through a self-caused act of freedom and creativity. God then shapes and forms the eternal Beings of the primordial chaos into Creation.
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