Abstract

This chapter is devoted to the problem of freedom in the writings of the Russian philosopher, Lev Shestov. For him, attaining spiritual freedom means overcoming existential anxiety about fate on the way to comprehending God. Shestov’s work is aimed at liberating man from the power of an extrinsic anonymous, objective order that consigns man to suffering here on earth. By correlating the interpretation of existential experience and the Bible, Shestov arrives at his own religious-philosophical concept of freedom. The chapter examines three mythologemes that are fundamental to Shestov’s philosophy of freedom: “creation out of nothing”, “the Fall”, and eschatological “annulment of past evil”.