According to Berdyaev, the inner reason for the existence of the world and its history is freedom: ‘The origin of the world springs from the freedom willed by God in the beginning. Without His will or longing for freedom no world process would be possible.’ History exists because man is free. But because man continually misuses and suppresses his freedom, human history is a tragedy. It is a tragedy of freedom, not a tragedy of doom. Because God himself wants man to be free, the tragedy of human history is Gods own tragedy too. God desires the freedom of his image on earth, and yet cannot force freedom on him; he can only create it and preserve it through the suffering of his eternal love. Consequently the history of man’s freedom is simply the side of the history of God’s passion which is open to our experience and perception. God’s suffering stands at the centre only because God wants freedom.
Why does God want freedom? If the reason for history lies in the tormenting mystery of freedom, then the foundation of this mystery of freedom is to be found in God himself. It is not just that man longs for God. God also longs for man. ‘A longing for the beloved, the one who freely loves and, in response to it, the genesis of man in God.’ This longing of God’s is a movement in God himself, which leads him out of himself and brings him to his counterpart, his ‘Other’ – man. So the tragedy of human freedom is at the same time the passion history of this longing of God’s for men and women. Berdyaev therefore calls the true tragedy of human history the tragedy of God, who wants freedom, and can only create and preserve it through the suffering of his love. God wants only the free manifestation of men and women and their free creative activity. It is only these which respond to and reciprocate the longing God has for human beings he has created.
Quoted from The Trinity and the Kingdom, pp. 42-43