Berdyaev was a member of the
Russian Orthodox Church, and believed Orthodoxy was the religious tradition closest to
early Christianity. Nicholas Berdyaev was an Orthodox Christian. However, it must be said that he was of an independent and somewhat "liberal" sort. Berdyaev also criticized the
Russian Orthodox Church and described his views as
anticlerical. Berdyaev is frequently presented as one of the important Russian Orthodox thinkers of the 20th century. However,
neopatristic scholars such as
Florovsky have questioned whether his philosophy is essentially Orthodox in character, and emphasize his western influences. But Florovsky was savaged in a 1937 Journal Put' article by Berdyaev. Paul Valliere has pointed out the sociological factors and global trends which have shaped the Neopatristic movement, and questions their claim that Berdyaev and
Vladimir Solovyov are somehow less authentically Orthodox. Along with
Sergei Bulgakov, he was instrumental in bringing renewed attention to the Orthodox doctrine of
apokatastasis, which had largely been neglected since it was expounded by
Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century, although he rejected
Origen's articulation of this doctrine. The aftermath of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, along with Soviet efforts towards the
separation of church and state, caused the Russian Orthodox émigré diaspora to splinter into three Russian Church jurisdictions: the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (separated from Moscow Patriarchate until 2007), the parishes under Metropolitan
Eulogius (Georgiyevsky) that went under the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and parishes that remained under the
Moscow Patriarchate. Berdyaev was among those that chose to remain under the omophorion of the
Moscow Patriarchate. He is mentioned by name on the Korsun/Chersonese Diocesan history as among those noted figures who supported the Moscow Patriarchate West-European Eparchy (in France now Korsun eparchy). Currently, the house in Clamart in which Berdyaev lived, now comprises a small "Berdiaev-museum" and attached Chapel in name of the Holy Spirit, under the omophorion of the Moscow Patriarchate. On 24 March 2018, the 70th anniversary of Berdyaev's death, the priest of the Chapel served panikhida-memorial prayer at the Diocesan cathedral for eternal memory of Berdyaev, and later that day the Diocesan bishop Nestor (Sirotenko) presided over prayer at the grave of Berdyaev. In recent years, efforts to archive and document Berdyaev's work have expanded. A group of scholars has digitized original, unpublished manuscripts from the Berdiaev-museum in Clamart, France, offering researchers and the public deeper insight into his unpublished writings and correspondence. ==Works==