The Pneumatological Doctrines of Nikolai Berdyaev and Sergei Bulgakov: Ecstasy and Kenosis

The aim of the study is to explicate the conceptual differences in the interpretation of spirit in Nikolai Berdyaev's and Sergei Bulgakov's philosophies. The subject matter of the article is Berdyaev's and Bulgakov's philosophical doctrines of spirit in the aspect of comparative research. The pneumatological doctrines of the Russian philosophers in the context of the crisis of European metaphysics are compared. The article uses the methodological techniques and tenets of philosophical comparative studies. The article substantiates the thesis that, in Berdyaev's doctrine, spirit is understood as an ecstatic way out of established boundaries, while Bulgakov interprets spirit as a kenotic adoption of endless measures and boundaries. The difference in the understanding of the phenomenon of spirit was largely predetermined by the discrepancy between Western metaphysics and Russian philosophy. In Greek, "spirit" can be referred to by words "nous" or "pneuma". In the first case, rationality is actualized as the highest basis of the universe; in the second, divinity as the source of life. Ancient metaphysics and scholastic philosophy tend to understand spirit as nous, which predetermines almost all collisions of European metaphysics. Attempts to develop a new philosophy of spirit are made in Russian religious philosophy. The answer to the crisis of European metaphysics is turning from nousology to pneumatology. In the Western tradition, spirit as nous receives conceptualization in the categories of being, the root cause, the one. Accordingly, pneumatology implies the liberation of spirit from the categories of European metaphysics. This trend is manifested in Berdyaev's and Bulgakov's doctrines. Thus, for Berdyaev, spirit does not act as a transcendental principle, transcending all the plural, material, bodily and finite. The article proves that in the articulation and absolutization of the ecstatic and creative aspects of spirituality, the Nietzschean element of Berdyaev's pneumatological philosophy is manifested. Bulgakov finds a concept that can bring the philosophies of spirit closer to the horizons in theology, not in metaphysics. This is the concept "kenosis". In kenosis, the descent, the self-limitation of God in directing the world, the infinite coming to to the finite, the adoption of measures and boundaries. Thus, Bulgakov's doctrine on the kenosis of the Holy Spirit is opposed to Berdyaev's ecstatic understanding of spirit. Bulgakov's theological and philosophical developments lead to the significant conclusion that ontological events can be not only a violation, but also the establishment of boundaries. For Bulgakov, this is the kenosis of the Holy Spirit, which involves acceptance of incompleteness, entry of the infinite into measure and boundaries, and voluntary presence within them rather than a transgressive violation of boundaries. This is the third ontological horizon, which is equally different from both metaphysical transcendence and postmodern transgression.

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