If you are weary with 2021, go back with me 200 years to 1821. That is the year Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born. That famous Russian novelist died 140 years ago this month, in February 1881. He and his writings are certainly worth thinking about.
Dostoyevsky’s Life
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (often
transliterated Dostoevsky) was born in Moscow, the son of a doctor. In 1838 he enrolled
in a military engineering school in St. Petersburg, but he was more interested
in the humanities than in engineering. After graduating in 1843, he resigned
from the army.
After 1845, Dostoyevsky became involved in a
political and cultural group of rebels, which was severely targeted by the
Russian government. Saved from death by a firing squad in 1849, he spent four
years at a prison labor camp and then served five years in the army in Siberia.
Dostoyevsky’s major novels were all written
between 1860, after his return to St. Petersburg, and 1880. Three days after
his death on Feb. 9, 1881, he was buried in the Tikhvin Cemetery of the historic
Alexander Nevsky Monastery. His funeral was attended by tens of thousands of
mourners.
Dostoyevsky’s Writings
Dostoevsky's oeuvre
consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories, and numerous other
works. His most acclaimed works are
Notes from Underground (1864)
Crime
and Punishment (1866)
The Idiot (1869)
Demons (or The Possessed) (1871-72)
The Brothers Karamazov (1880).
The last of these is arguably the best of the
five—and it is said to have been the last book that Leo Tolstoy read before his
death in 1910. (Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy knew of each other and of each other’s
writings, but apparently they never met in person.)
Dostoyevsky’s Gospel Emphases
The Gospel in Dostoyevsky: Selections from His Works, published by Plough Publishing House most recently in 2014, is a delightful book, made even more delightful with the illustrations, including the cover image, by Fritz Eichenberg. (Here is the link to my 11/30/13 blog post about him.)
The first selection in the book is “The Legend
of the Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov, and
certainly that is one of the premier pieces in Dostoyevsky’s writings.
A key assertion here is that “the secret of
man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.” The Gospel,
to Dostoyevsky, unveils that secret.
While the book has four selections from The
Idiot and a couple from Crime and Punishment and some from lesser-known
writings, those from The Brothers Karamazov are the most powerful, and
two lengthy selections are of Elder Zossima (which in other books is sometimes
spelled Zosima).
In “From the Life of the Elder Zossima”
(Kindle version, pp. 142~182), Dostoyevsky asks through Zossima, “And what is
the use of Christ’s words unless we set an example? The people are lost without
the Word of God, for their soul is athirst for the Word and for all that is
good” (p. 153).
The last selection in the book is
“Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zossima” (pp. 210~226). In the brief introduction,
the book’s unnamed editors say, “There is no doubt that here we have before us
Dostoyevsky’s religious testament.”
In the Foreword (written
for an earlier version of this book) Malcolm Muggeridge (1903~90), an
Englishman who was an agnostic until he converted to Christianity in his 60s,
wrote,
Supposing one were asked to name a book calculated to give an unbeliever today a clear notion of what Christianity is about, could one hope to do much better than The Brothers Karamazov?
Certainly, in it, as
well as in his earlier writings, we find the Gospel in Dostoyevsky presented in
many thought-provoking and appealing ways. For both Christian believers and
non-believers, Dostoyevsky is unquestionably worth reading and/or reading
again.
_____
** Of the several sources consulted, I am
particularly indebted to David J. Leigh, a Jesuit professor at Seattle
University, for his “The Philosophy and Theology of Fyodor Dostoevsky,”
published in Vol. 33. Nos. 1-2 of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, a
journal published by University of Toronto.
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I’m reading The Brothers now; don’t know if I’ll ever finish.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is quite long and somewhat complex, just like "Crime and Punishment" as well as Tolstoy's novels. But I think it is worth plowing through, and it is the only one of Dostoyevsky's novels I have read twice.
DeleteThis morning, Thinking Friend Vicki Price, a former missionary colleague in Japan who has lived for many years now in Texas, wrote saying,
ReplyDelete"Thank you for sharing the material about Dostoyevsky; I plan to locate the book here. You may not remember that the year I was in charge of the MK activities at Amagi, I invited you to do a seminar with the youth on the Christian implications in Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment.'"
Yes, Vicki, I remember well studying 'Crime and Punishment' with the older MKs (missionary kids) at Amagi in 1967, but I didn't remember you were the one that made it possible for me to have that opportunity. That was the first time I read 'Crime and Punishment,' or anything by Dostoyevsky, I guess, and my appreciation for him began then. I was sorry I didn't have space (due to my self-imposed word limit) to say something about 'Crime and Punishment' in today's blog article. I still have contact from time to time with Margaret Moorhead--and now she is one of my Thinking Friends--in large part, I think, because of that study of Dostoyevsky at Amagi in 1967. I appreciate you giving me that opportunity.
DeleteAnd then, after sending Vicki's comments to Margaret, Ed.D, I received the following comments from her:
ReplyDelete"The names Fyodor Dostoevsky and Dr. Leroy Seat are very paired in my life. I was a 16-year-old Southern Baptist missionary kid in Tokyo, Japan when I learned that for our once annual mission meeting my age group was being asked to read 'Crime and Punishment' for discussion at our upcoming meeting. Our teacher would be a newly arriving missionary, Dr. Leroy Seat. We probably called him Uncle Leroy!
"The most indelible feeling from that single event was deep surprise. Not once in the 15 years prior to this announcement had we been presented with anything other than the Bible and that had never been preceded by homework! The feeling of shock and curiosity may have come from the unspoken possibility that someone was willing to listen to our impressions, our thoughts and feelings. It felt as though the world was arriving to our 'Christ-haunted'* mountain,
"My memory of the book was one of unmitigated suffering, a small disheveled room, a bed heaped with blankets, a cup of tea, perhaps a candle and sheer anguish, friends dropping by. We might have accurately labeled the emotions as guilt and fear. I knew that I never wanted to do anything that left me feeling this way. My impression of our four mornings together was of lively discussion. And, as I left the four mornings, I felt that there was something unexpressed, unseen and waiting inside of me to be understood. I did not yet have the language or the insight. Finally, I have remained grateful to Dr. Seat for lo these intervening 53 and a half years. Thank you for this well constructed and timely review in the form of this blogpost.
*with gratitude for this amazing phrase to Flannery O'Connor
Margaret sent her comments to Robert Cox, Ph.D., in Vermont. He was one of the other MKs who was in that study group in 1967. Here is a bit from the long response he made to her and copied to me:
Delete"I do vaguely remember Uncle Leroy offering this discussion group. I do remember impressions of this group, but very little details. I remember distinctly that it was a breath of fresh air, something entirely different. . . .
"I actually went to my library and pulled out the book 'Crime and Punishment' which I had used then to be prepared. . . .
"One of the details I do remember from our discussion was Dostoevsky’s notion that 1) the 'sinner' can not escape from that individual’s sin and 2) the utter deceit of sin."
Margaret, thanks so much for your lengthy comments that you sent for me to post here (and I'm sorry you had difficulty in posting them directly and even had to re-write them).
DeleteIt has been my pleasure, and good fortune, to have had some contact with you over all these years since 1967, and you have lived up to the potential I saw in you then as a young woman who was eager to think deeply and to wrestle with the big questions of life.
Thanks, too, for forwarding your comments to Bob and drawing him in on this discussion.
Thank you for this post Leroy. In my humble opinion, The Brothers Karamazov is the best novel I've ever read, and perhaps the best novel ever written. It contains so much about life, death, good, evil, power and its abuse, sin, suffering, grace, etc. I first read it when I was around 20 years old. When I was in seminary, our homiletics professor, in a passing dare, said we could try to preach a sermon on a non-biblical text. I think I was the only student to take him up on that dare, so I preached a sermon based on The Brothers Karamazov.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, Garth. I found it interesting that you responded to your homiletics professor's dare and preached a sermon based on "The Brothers Karamazov"--but certainly there is a lot of Gospel there.
DeleteBro. Leroy,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this blog. I have heard of but knew little concerning Dostoevsky, and have never been prompted to read any of his works. It is high time I did so. From what you have written, it appears I should begin with The Brothers Karamazov. The same can be said for Solzhenitsyn and his writings.
Good to hear from you again, Tom. It is certainly not a quick or easy read, but, yes, I think you would find it rewarding to read "The Brothers Karamazov," and that that would be the Dostoyevsky novel to read first.
DeleteYesterday afternoon I received the following comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for your comments about Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
"I have read 'The Brothers Karamazov' and 'Crime and Punishment,' both great novels, although they have their critics. Dostoyevsky was a very complex man, devoted to a basic Christianity based on love and redemption and concern for the poor, yet he was politically conservative, at least later in life, and a strong supporter to the tsarist form of government, or at least a modification of it.
"I would recommend the two novels mentioned above. 'Crime and Punishment' is an interesting psychological study from inside the mind of the murderer."
Yes, Dostoyevsky was a man with several flaws (as we all are, I guess), but reading through "The Gospel in Dostoyevsky" helped me better understand his deep Christian faith in spite of those flaws.
DeleteHe had a considerably different view of the Russian Orthodox Church than Tolstoy, who basically rejected the Orthodox Church in a somewhat Anabaptist-like manner. But it seems that Dostoyevsky focused on the best in the Russian Church rather than the worst and in that way remained much more religiously, as well as politically conservative. Still, I think he had a commendable understanding of the Gospel view of sin and redemption.
So many books to read, so little time to read them! I read some Dostoyevsky in college half a century ago, maybe Notes and C&P, but the only part I really remember is the gold booklet with bright red labeling containing The Grand Inquisitor from Brothers that I read in a philosophy class. That remains seared into my memory. I guess it is time to add The Gospel in Dostoyevsky to my reading pile!
ReplyDeleteThis morning I posted a link to this blog article on Facebook, and Thinking Friend Cody McMahan made these comments there:
ReplyDelete"Many years ago Penguin Publishing released small chap books of selected readings from great novels. One of these was 'The Grand Inquisitor' from 'Brothers Karamazov.' I bought about 100 copies and gave them to all my "thinking friends" at the time. I then proceeded to be quite obnoxious about checking in to see if they had read it. I think the writing is superb and his provocative way of confronting the power dynamics of faith, family and politics is amazing."
Thanks, Cody, for sharing this. Yes, "The Grand Inquisitor" is a powerful story. You may not know that Plough Publishing House, which published "The Gospel in Dostoyevsky" that I referred to in my blog post, also published last year a short "graphic novel" under the title "The Grand Inquisitor," although it contains "Rebellion," the chapter in "The Brothers Karamazov" that precedes "The Grand Inquisitor."
DeleteI didn't particularly like the "comic book" form, but the nine-page Introduction is quite good, I thought. It is by Gary Saul Morson, a professor at Northwestern University, who is "best known for his work on the great Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky."
The printed version of the graphic novel is available from Plough Publishing House for $8.00, but it is available for downloading for free. Here is the link if you are interested in seeing/buying or downloading it:
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/literature/grand-inquisitor