Eckhart’s Concept of «Sign/Image» and Berdyaev’s Concept of «Symbol»: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the content of the concepts of «sign/image» in Meister Eckhart and «symbol» in Nikolai Berdyaev and to conduct their comparative analysis. The ideas of the German mystic influenced the formation of the religious and philosophical views of the Russian thinker. However, the content of the concepts of «sign/image» and «symbol» in these authors has little in common, which was the reason for the use of these concepts in resolving different theological and philosophical issues. While Eckhart used the concept of «sign/image» in gnoseology, anthropology, triadology, Christology, Berdyaev with the help of the concept of «symbol» tried to solve the problem of the duality of the world, namely its division into two spheres — the fallen empirical and the authentic spiritual.