The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedNikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev
Title QuotedMeaning of History
Date (Year/Month/Day)1959/12/08
Imprint[S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1923I
QuotationBerdyaev's Meaning of History made up of lectures given in Russia right after the Revolution, before he was kicked out, is one of his most important books. The power of his prophetic insight is especially evident here. He really has the best (spiritual) understanding of the mystery of our time. At the same time sees the futility of expecting a real fulfillment in time, and yet affirms most strongly man's creative duty to respond to God in time, even though his response will in the long run be doomed to temporal failure and extinction. But it is not lost-it is recovered in eternity. He demands of man a "fervent will to miracle and (to) the organic spiritual transfiguration of life."
Quotation SourceA Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3, 1952-1960.; Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 354
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