Berdyaev and Nietzsche

This article constitutes the first part of a comparative study between Friedrich Nietzsche and Nicolas Berdyaev, centered on the question of creation and the overcoming of nihilism. The approach is philosophical and analytical, articulating a close reading of both thinkers through the concept of the will to power and its limits. The main idea is that Nietzsche, by defining creation as immanent surpassing, fails to ground a genuine ethics of creation, lacking access to the notion of the person: his Übermensch remains anonymous, a faceless mask, condemned to catastrophe. Berdyaev, by contrast, extends and surpasses Nietzsche by proposing an "ecstatic" conception of personal unity, grounded in alterity and communion, where the finite and the infinite unite without merging. The theological contribution lies in Berdyaev's reinterpretation of Eastern theosis as an incarnate creative dynamism, offering an alternative both to Nietzschean nihilism and to Western metaphysical dualisms.