Dilemmas of reaction in leninist RussiaThe christian response to the revolution in the works of N.A. Berdyaev 1917-1924af Christian Gottlieb

This book focuses particularly on his early post-revolutionary works, which express a passionate protest against the revolution. His was clearly the most comprehensive contemporary critique of the revolutionary project from a Christian perspective. Essential themes of Christian theology and social thought are brought out in a radical way suitable to a radical situation. From his consistently religious perspective he foresaw with precision much of the inhuman and tyrannical potential of the revolutionary project - later to be abundantly confirmed by the development of the Soviet regime. The dilemmas discerned in his response particularly relate to his call for spiritual resistance and to his expectation of a Christian alternative - an illustrative instance of the confrontation of Christianity with the modern world.