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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