Two Councils by A.N. Maykov in F.M. Dostoevsky’s Novel The Brothers Karamazov

The article is devoted to the issue of reception of the poems about Catholic Church written by A.N. Maykov, a close friend of F.M. Dostoevsky, in his novel The Brothers Karamazov and, above all, in The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. We are talking about the poems - The Queens Confessions. The Legend of the Spanish Inquisition, Sentence. The Legend of the Constance Council and The Legend of the Clermont Council. It is The Queens Confessions which led Dostoevsky to make Seville the setting for the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. The main character of the Sentence, Cardinal Hermit, became the prototype of the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevskys novel, and the main character of The Legend of Clermont Council, the Pilgrim Hermit, in many ways became the prototype of the unrecognized Christ from the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. The article presents significant textual parallels between Maykovs poems and The Brothers Karamazov .

Unde malum? Czesław Miłosz on Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Vladimir Solovyov

This article discusses Czesław Miłosz’s essays on Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and A Tale of the Anti-Christ by Vladimir Solovyov. These essays focus on the essence, genesis, and forms of evil, and seek an answer to the unde malum question. Miłosz believes that in world literature there are no other works that show the nature of evil in a similar way. Dostoyevsky’s work, when read from various philosophical perspectives, reveals very complex meanings, as Solovyov demonstrates. Through his engagement with the two great Russian writers, Miłosz’s own work resonates more strongly in the debate about the condition of the modern man.

THE GRAND INQUISITOR: THE PATHS OF FREEDOM

This paper analyzes the antitheistic argument of Ivan Karamazov in the context of theodicy. We focus on the chapter The Grand Inquisitor, which, as we demonstrate, represents the ultimate argumentative point of Ivan’s "rebellion" against God. Logical impossibility of justifying evil in the world leads Ivan not only to the conclusion that evil is an unerasable mark of God’s mistake appearing while making his creation (man and the world), but also that the basis of that evil is one of the most appreciated human virtues: freedom. After Alyosha introduces Christ (thesis) into an argument on theodicy, as an instance that can and has the right to forgive evil and thus cancel its effects, Ivan responds with his dialectical counterpart (antithesis): The Grand inquisitor. Synthesis in this dialectical struggle, as we demonstrate, does not lead to any logically acceptable solution. On the contrary. We are left with the paradox: freedom has, at the same time, led to theodicy and to an accusation against Christ.

N. A. Berdyaev’te Kötülük Problemi ve Teodise

Max Weber argues that the metaphysical conception of God creates "an ineradicable demand for theodicy." Similarly, Augustine asked, "What is the source of evil?" He writes that the question worried him from an early age, that it was the problem that wore him down and dragged him into the community of heretics. Augustine returns to the Catholic Church only when he has a satisfactory answer to this, in Christian Platonic terms. The suffering of Augustine's experience and Weber's insight intersect in Berdiaev's thought. Berdiaev, like Augustine, is deeply concerned with the emergence of evil and, like Weber, believes that a Christian theist position should address the issue of evil and suffering. Berdyaev calls this task “the defense of God”. In this study, Berdyaev's views on God, the source of evil, and God's Defense are discussed. Keywords: Theodicy, God, Ungrund, Freedom, Jesus Christ, Grand Inquisitor, Dostoevsky, Berdyaev

God, Evil, Freedom. Reception and Interpretation of Dostoevsky in Luigi Pareyson and his Heirs

The essay aims to focus on reception and interpretation of Dostoevsky in the thought of Luigi Pareyson (1918-1991) and his heirs, who have developed a deep and original theoretical reading of Dostoevsky's work, able to bring out not only its ethical stance, but most of the essential aspects of his thought, and to investigate its current relevance. The reflection of Pareyson – who promoted the introduction of Dostoevsky's thought into the academic circles of Turin, being convinced that philosophy cannot avoid confronting the issues it explores – consists of three main moments: the experience of good and evil, the experience of freedom and the experience of God. Starting from consideration of Dostoevsky's characters as ideas, Pareyson proposes a new and coherent philosophical interpretation of his work, which can undoubtedly be compared to those of Ivanov, Berdjaev, Evdomikov, Šestov. His observations around the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor and the "refutation of Ivan" – which, according to him, constitute the most significant and theoretically prolific moments of Dostoevsky's production – seem unaffected by the flow of time and could still represent a valuable and indispensable contribution to the understanding not only of the great Russian author, but of human nature itself.

Forgotten Memoirs About F. M. Dostoevsky in the Collection of A. G. Dostoevskaya

In the 140 years that have passed since the death of F. M. Dostoevsky, almost all of his contemporaries’ memoirs about the writer have been published (in separate books and collections). To date, we can assume that the main corpus of Dostoevsky’s contemporaries’ accounts of him is publicly available. However, this does not mean that it is completely exhausted. A review of newspaper clippings collected by A. G. Dostoevskaya allowed us to identify several notes that were previously unaccounted for and missed by the publishers. For the most part, these are small fragments included by their authors in articles on other topics, nevertheless, they are also of interest to the biographers of F. M. Dostoevsky. The article publishes and comments on the memoirs of A. A. Sokolov, S. Atava, Vogue, V. G. Avseenko, V. F. Putsykovich. They are related to the final years of Dostoevsky's life, capturing distinct features of his everyday behavior, specific phrases and statements. Of interest is the story related by V. G. Avseenko about Dostoevsky's attitude to the political events in Europe, as well as Dostoevsky's commentary on his “The Grand Inquisitor,” was recorded by V. F. Putskovich after a meeting in Berlin in 1879.

Freedom, Happiness, and the Communion of Life

The first part of this paper discusses the question of freedom and happiness through the prism of Dostoyevsky's Story of the Grand Inquisitor and Evgenyi Zamyatin's dystopia We. It argues that the goal of human life is not happiness but freedom, and that materialistic utilitarianism and rationalism do not oppose totalitarianism. The second part of the paper shows, through the philosophy of Nikolai Berdyaev, that freedom is both personalistic and communitarian and that death and separation in our lives cannot destroy life and the meaning of life. According to Berdyaev's eschatological vision, there is no individual salvation; life is eternal and essentially communal. The argument of this paper could be described as theologia crucis.

Freedom, Happiness, and the Communion of Life

The first part of this paper discusses the question of freedom and happiness through the prism of Dostoyevsky's Story of the Grand Inquisitor and Evgenyi Zamyatin's dystopia We. It argues that the goal of human life is not happiness but freedom, and that materialistic utilitarianism and rationalism do not oppose totalitarianism. The second part of the paper shows, through the philosophy of Nikolai Berdyaev, that freedom is both personalistic and communitarian and that death and separation in our lives cannot destroy life and the meaning of life. According to Berdyaev's eschatological vision, there is no individual salvation; life is eternal and essentially communal. The argument of this paper could be described as theologia crucis.

To Be or Not to Be God—The Issue of Authorial Power in Dostoevsky

This paper problematizes the now widely accepted concept of Dostoevsky’s dialogism, which alleges the ‘Author’s’ equal empowerment of all his characters. Using examples from Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Zholkovsky focuses on instances of ‘scene-staging’ based on the ‘scripts’ devised and enacted by some characters, that are ‘read,’ with varying success, by their targets. He documents the resulting ‘discursive combat’ among the characters, with special attention paid to those ‘playing god’ and thus, the more ‘authorial’ among them. In several cases, the would-be ‘divine’ manipulation is shown to be consistently subverted by the Dostoevskian narrative. However, in one instance, where Aliosha Karamazov charitably scripts Captain Snegirev’s behavior, the ensuing discussion of this episode, in Aliosha’s conversations with Lise Khokhlakova, upholds Aliosha’s right to play god with the Other—“for the Other’s own good”, of course (not unlike the Grand Inquisitor).