Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Religious Interpretations of Dostoevsky
- Chapter 2 The Realism of Dostoevsky's Fictional Christianity
- Chapter 3 Christian Themes in Crime and Punishment
- Chapter 4 Religious Discussions in The Idiot and The Adolescent
- Chapter 5 Christian Voices in The Devils
- Chapter 6 The Spirituality of the Monk Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov
- Chapter 7 The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor: Literary Irony and Theological Seriousness
- Chapter 8 Dostoevsky's ‘Grand Inquisitor’ and Vladimir Solovyov's ‘Antichrist’
- Chapter 9 Physical and Divine Beauty: The Aesthetical-Ethical Dilemma in Dostoevsky's Novels
- Chapter 10 Conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index of Names
Chapter 3 - Christian Themes in Crime and Punishment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Religious Interpretations of Dostoevsky
- Chapter 2 The Realism of Dostoevsky's Fictional Christianity
- Chapter 3 Christian Themes in Crime and Punishment
- Chapter 4 Religious Discussions in The Idiot and The Adolescent
- Chapter 5 Christian Voices in The Devils
- Chapter 6 The Spirituality of the Monk Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov
- Chapter 7 The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor: Literary Irony and Theological Seriousness
- Chapter 8 Dostoevsky's ‘Grand Inquisitor’ and Vladimir Solovyov's ‘Antichrist’
- Chapter 9 Physical and Divine Beauty: The Aesthetical-Ethical Dilemma in Dostoevsky's Novels
- Chapter 10 Conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index of Names
Summary
Only very gradually do religious themes start to play a role in Dostoevsky's literary work after his Siberian period. In spite of the fact that his detention in the Siberian penal colony greatly contributes to Dostoevsky's re-assessment of Christianity, Christian themes play no part in two of the first three works from the beginning of the 1860s, The Insulted and Injured and Notes from the Underground. Only at the end of the 60s do Christian themes and motifs become clearly defined in the psychological, ethical and ideological conflicts in the novels, finally culminating in the predominately religious novel, The Brothers Karamazov.
In Notes from the Underground, Dostoevsky did try to include a religious theme but, to his astonishment, the censor eliminated it. In a letter of March 26th, 1864 to his brother, Mikhail, Dostoevsky speaks with bitterness of the censor's activities in Chapter 10 of the first part: ‘The censor pigs have passed everything where I scoffed at everything and, on the face of it, was sometimes even blasphemous, but have forbidden the parts where I demonstrated the need for belief in Christ from all this’ (XVIII, 2, 73). This philosophical-psychological masterpiece has thus remained secular and Dostoevsky did not keep the missing part.
The themes from Notes from the Underground, however, not only the anti-rationalist and anti-utilitarian protests, but also the unfathomable depths of human freedom, have a direct relationship with Christian anthropology: the human will as a potential for good and evil.
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- Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011