Freedom above all
The mystery of the world abides in freedom: God desired freedom and freedom gave rise to tragedy in the world. Freedom is at the beginning and at the end. I might say that all my life I was engaged in hammering out a philosophy of freedom. I was moved by the basic conviction that God is truly present and operative only in freedom. Freedom alone should be recognised as possessing a sacred quality, whilst all the other things to which a sacred character has been assigned since history began ought to be made null and void. I found strength to renounce many things in life, but I have never renounced anything in the name of duty or out of obedience to precepts and prohibitions: I renounced for the sake of freedom, and, maybe, also out of compassion. Nothing could ever tie me down, and this, no doubt, has to some extent weakened my efficiency and diminished my possibilities of self-realisation. I always knew, however, that freedom gives birth to suffering, while the refusal to be free diminishes suffering. Freedom is not easy, as its enemies and slanders allege: freedom is hard; it is a heavy burden. All things in human life should born of freedom and pass through freedom and be rejected whenever they betray freedom. The true meaning and origin of the fallen condition of humanity is to be seen in the primordial rejection of freedom.
From Dream and Reality by Nicolas Berdyaev
The mystery of the world abides in freedom: God desired freedom and freedom gave rise to tragedy in the world. Freedom is at the beginning and at the end. I might say that all my life I was engaged in hammering out a philosophy of freedom. I was moved by the basic conviction that God is truly present and operative only in freedom. Freedom alone should be recognised as possessing a sacred quality, whilst all the other things to which a sacred character has been assigned since history began ought to be made null and void. I found strength to renounce many things in life, but I have never renounced anything in the name of duty or out of obedience to precepts and prohibitions: I renounced for the sake of freedom, and, maybe, also out of compassion. Nothing could ever tie me down, and this, no doubt, has to some extent weakened my efficiency and diminished my possibilities of self-realisation. I always knew, however, that freedom gives birth to suffering, while the refusal to be free diminishes suffering. Freedom is not easy, as its enemies and slanders allege: freedom is hard; it is a heavy burden. All things in human life should born of freedom and pass through freedom and be rejected whenever they betray freedom. The true meaning and origin of the fallen condition of humanity is to be seen in the primordial rejection of freedom.From Dream and Reality by Nicolas Berdyaev
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