{"id":433,"date":"2015-11-08T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T12:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrmushava.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/08\/dostoyevsky-and-the-abolition-of-god\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T15:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T15:10:29","slug":"dostoyevsky-and-the-abolition-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=433","title":{"rendered":"Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Abolition of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"http:\/\/cdn.collider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-idiot-fyodor-dostoevsky-book-cover.jpg\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Idiot <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Fyodor Dostoyevsky\u2019s novels prefigure mankind\u2019s progress through history with a depth of field which goes light years beyond time travel. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The novelist considers the implications for the future from ideas which started routing for establishment during his time. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By the time his native Russia became the world\u2019s first officially atheist state, the unsettling implications has been articulated in his work.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dostoyevsky\u2019s great novels, \u201cThe Idiot,\u201d \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d \u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d and \u201cThe Demons,\u201d set him apart in the canon of world literature for their prophetic magnitude.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dostoyevsky\u2019s apocalyptic vision of a world unhinged from the centre, of mankind detached from the source, holds especially for the present. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His observation in \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov\u201d that \u201cwithout God, everything is permitted,\u201d captures succinctly the problem of the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love,\u201d Dostoyevsky observes. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A supposition is taken for granted that atheism is the default intellectual state as faith has been marked out as the b\u00eate noire of modernity. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The invasive ferment of evil predicted in his novels is spreading full circle. Self-interest and situational ethics run the thread of modern cultures. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Offhand, we could discuss constitutional euphemisms for murder and new names to sell the evolving standards of decency. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

An institution can chop aborted babies for sale and bankroll a sitting president\u2013 not in a bad day for God at the Box Office but in real-life chemistry starring Planned Parenthood and the White House. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While secular humanism attempts a case for man\u2019s inherent capacity for good, Dostoyevsky insists that the question of what constitutes moral conduct, without God in the picture, is open to contradictions as it is informed by self-interest. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mistakes of history in the ferment of fanaticism, outbreak of atheism and enforcement of ideology are materials of vision and conversation in Dostoyevsky\u2019s major novels. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His accomplishment consists largely in his pursuit of the great questions of life, in their varied categorisations, to their logical conclusion.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His characters, often psychologically tortured individuals and sites of disparate world views, translate broadly subscribed ideas from abstract space to everyday life.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For Dostoyevsky, the problem of existence lies \u201cnot in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.\u201d He agonises over the nature of man, the essence of life and the place of God in the world.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dostoyevsky merits Malcolm Muggeridge\u2019s portrayal of him as a \u201cspy of God.\u201d While he is occupied with the commonplace, he searches deeper than the ordinary writer \u2013 he shatters the \u201cthe givenness of things\u201d and assumed answers. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His observation that stars brighten as night deepens might have been made from a theological perspective but it equally explains the growing significance of his work in an antagonising spiritual climate. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The pitch at which he struggles with the burden of meaning is elevated and demanding yet honesty, more than sophistication, seems to be the passcode for getting into his work. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The crowning work of Dostoyevsky\u2019s genius is probably \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov.\u201d The book commands vast acclaim, with Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Franz Kafka among its warm admirers. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With such a varied following and respect across major disciplines, the essential Dostoyevsky who obsesses over the broken signal between man and his Maker tends to be obscured. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He once complains elesewhere that exclusive attention for his narrative facility obscures his principal intent of pointing his audience to faith. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d Dostoyevsky foregrounds, in a story revolving around parricide, the dialogue between faith and unbelief in a novel which has secured a monumental rating in world literature.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite its prohibiting length, the novel is engaging both for the narrative and the contesting tendencies of Fyodor Karamazov\u2019s sons, Dimtri the sensualist, Ivan the rationalist and Alyosha the novice, and the Christian apologist Father Zosma.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The high point of the novel is the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor passage, set in unusual apologetic mode, in which Ivan presents the basis of his unbelief to his pious young brother. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the accomplishments of the passage is its clear-cut distinction between biblical Christianity and institutionalised Christendom. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The career-oriented and material-minded trending creeds and the historically bungling older forms whose baggage includes inquisitions and crusades are not spared.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Curiously, the passage is claimed by both Christians and atheists as defense chest for their beliefs.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, Dostoyevsky is essentially discussing the implications of rejecting God, thereby short-circuiting both atheism and the instutionalised excesses of Western Christendom.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dostoyevsky himself had struggled with doubt but rediscovered faith while serving time in Siberia. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The dialogue between faith and secular tendencies characterises much of his subsequent work but in the end, the Bible-beater triumphs over the sceptic. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While Dostoyevsky is troubled with the perversion of the truth by religious institutions, he is drawn to the primitive and pure faith of the Bible. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly, and more perfect than the Saviour; I say to myself with jealous love that not only is there no one else like Him, but that there could be no one,\u201d he intimates in a letter. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would even say more: If anyone could prove to me that Christ<\/span><\/a>is outside the truth<\/span><\/a>, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d one of Dostoyevsky\u2019s more familiar works, narrates a young nihilist\u2019s murder of a pawnbroker and an unfortunate witness. However, it is essentially a story of spiritual regeneration.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The criminal, Raskolnikov, who cannot bear the weight of his guilt, ultimately renounces pride and finds Christ. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The novel was a subject of both censure and acclaim. Nihilist critics took offense while others saw a work of staggering genius underpinned by profound spiritual implications and psychological insight. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The closing chapter carries a passage of apocalyptic import in the form of a dream. Raskolnikov\u2019s dream is a penetrating portrayal of the degenerate tendencies of modernity. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cSome new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once mad and furious,\u201d narrates Dostoyevsky.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut never had men considered themselves so intellectual and so completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions, and their moral convictions so infallible.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey did not know how to judge and could not agree what to consider evil and what good; they did not know whom to blame, whom to justify.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMen killed each other in a sort of senseless spite\u2026 They gathered together in armies against one another, but even on the march the armies would begin attacking each other, the ranks would be broken and the soldiers would fall on each other, stabbing and cutting, biting and devouring each other,\u201d relates Dostoyevsky.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At the high point of the dream, a new dispensation commences in which \u201ca pure chosen people, destined to found a new race and a new life, to renew and purify the earth\u201d find its way out of the chaos.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The cataclysmic tragedy in the dream speaks to the abolition of God, perversion of knowledge, downgrade of morality, end of reason, aversion to love, prevalence of crime and eruption of terror currently sweeping across the world.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The viral, and seldom question, diffusion of redefinitions of values and institutions such as love, marriage, freedom, family, gender, sexuality, tolerance, truth and the meaning of life in our time hint the fulfillment of Raskolnikov\u2019s dream.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The crisis of judgement in the creative industries has metamorphosed from a subject of concern to the new normal. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, Dostoyevsky foresees a universal brotherhood, brought about not by enforcement or anarchy, but the triumph of Christian enlightenment. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky\u2019s novels prefigure mankind\u2019s progress through history with a depth of field which goes light years beyond time travel. \u00a0\u00a0 The novelist considers the implications for the future from ideas which started routing for establishment during his time. By the time his native Russia became the world\u2019s first officially atheist state, the unsettling implications has been articulated in his work. Dostoyevsky\u2019s great novels, \u201cThe Idiot,\u201d \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d \u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d and \u201cThe Demons,\u201d set him apart in the canon of world literature for their prophetic magnitude. Dostoyevsky\u2019s apocalyptic vision of a world unhinged from the centre, of mankind detached from the source, holds especially for the present. His observation in \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov\u201d that \u201cwithout God, everything is permitted,\u201d captures succinctly the problem of the 21st century. \u201cThe man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love,\u201d Dostoyevsky observes. A supposition is taken for granted that atheism is the default intellectual state as faith has been marked out as the b\u00eate noire of modernity. The invasive ferment of evil predicted in his novels is spreading full circle. Self-interest and situational ethics run the thread of modern cultures. Offhand, we could discuss constitutional euphemisms for murder and new names to sell the evolving standards of decency. An institution can chop aborted babies for sale and bankroll a sitting president\u2013 not in a bad day for God at the Box Office but in real-life chemistry starring Planned Parenthood and the White House. \u00a0 While secular humanism attempts a case for man\u2019s inherent capacity for good, Dostoyevsky insists that the question of what constitutes moral conduct, without God in the picture, is open to contradictions as it is informed by self-interest. Mistakes of history in the ferment of fanaticism, outbreak of atheism and enforcement of ideology are materials of vision and conversation in Dostoyevsky\u2019s major novels. His accomplishment consists largely in his pursuit of the great questions of life, in their varied categorisations, to their logical conclusion. His characters, often psychologically tortured individuals and sites of disparate world views, translate broadly subscribed ideas from abstract space to everyday life. For Dostoyevsky, the problem of existence lies \u201cnot in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.\u201d He agonises over the nature of man, the essence of life and the place of God in the world. Dostoyevsky merits Malcolm Muggeridge\u2019s portrayal of him as a \u201cspy of God.\u201d While he is occupied with the commonplace, he searches deeper than the ordinary writer \u2013 he shatters the \u201cthe givenness of things\u201d and assumed answers. His observation that stars brighten as night deepens might have been made from a theological perspective but it equally explains the growing significance of his work in an antagonising spiritual climate. \u00a0 The pitch at which he struggles with the burden of meaning is elevated and demanding yet honesty, more than sophistication, seems to be the passcode for getting into his work. The crowning work of Dostoyevsky\u2019s genius is probably \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov.\u201d The book commands vast acclaim, with Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Franz Kafka among its warm admirers. With such a varied following and respect across major disciplines, the essential Dostoyevsky who obsesses over the broken signal between man and his Maker tends to be obscured. He once complains elesewhere that exclusive attention for his narrative facility obscures his principal intent of pointing his audience to faith. \u00a0 In \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d Dostoyevsky foregrounds, in a story revolving around parricide, the dialogue between faith and unbelief in a novel which has secured a monumental rating in world literature. Despite its prohibiting length, the novel is engaging both for the narrative and the contesting tendencies of Fyodor Karamazov\u2019s sons, Dimtri the sensualist, Ivan the rationalist and Alyosha the novice, and the Christian apologist Father Zosma. The high point of the novel is the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor passage, set in unusual apologetic mode, in which Ivan presents the basis of his unbelief to his pious young brother. One of the accomplishments of the passage is its clear-cut distinction between biblical Christianity and institutionalised Christendom. The career-oriented and material-minded trending creeds and the historically bungling older forms whose baggage includes inquisitions and crusades are not spared. Curiously, the passage is claimed by both Christians and atheists as defense chest for their beliefs. However, Dostoyevsky is essentially discussing the implications of rejecting God, thereby short-circuiting both atheism and the instutionalised excesses of Western Christendom. Dostoyevsky himself had struggled with doubt but rediscovered faith while serving time in Siberia. \u00a0 The dialogue between faith and secular tendencies characterises much of his subsequent work but in the end, the Bible-beater triumphs over the sceptic. \u00a0\u00a0 While Dostoyevsky is troubled with the perversion of the truth by religious institutions, he is drawn to the primitive and pure faith of the Bible. \u00a0 \u201cI believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly, and more perfect than the Saviour; I say to myself with jealous love that not only is there no one else like Him, but that there could be no one,\u201d he intimates in a letter. \u201cI would even say more: If anyone could prove to me that Christis outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth,\u201d he says. \u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d one of Dostoyevsky\u2019s more familiar works, narrates a young nihilist\u2019s murder of a pawnbroker and an unfortunate witness. However, it is essentially a story of spiritual regeneration. The criminal, Raskolnikov, who cannot bear the weight of his guilt, ultimately renounces pride and finds Christ. The novel was a subject of both censure and acclaim. Nihilist critics took offense while others saw a work of staggering genius underpinned by profound spiritual implications<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nFyodor Dostoyevsky and the Abolition of God | Blockspace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=433\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Abolition of God | Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky\u2019s novels prefigure mankind\u2019s progress through history with a depth of field which goes light years beyond time travel. \u00a0\u00a0 The novelist considers the implications for the future from ideas which started routing for establishment during his time. By the time his native Russia became the world\u2019s first officially atheist state, the unsettling implications has been articulated in his work. Dostoyevsky\u2019s great novels, \u201cThe Idiot,\u201d \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d \u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d and \u201cThe Demons,\u201d set him apart in the canon of world literature for their prophetic magnitude. Dostoyevsky\u2019s apocalyptic vision of a world unhinged from the centre, of mankind detached from the source, holds especially for the present. His observation in \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov\u201d that \u201cwithout God, everything is permitted,\u201d captures succinctly the problem of the 21st century. \u201cThe man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love,\u201d Dostoyevsky observes. A supposition is taken for granted that atheism is the default intellectual state as faith has been marked out as the b\u00eate noire of modernity. The invasive ferment of evil predicted in his novels is spreading full circle. Self-interest and situational ethics run the thread of modern cultures. Offhand, we could discuss constitutional euphemisms for murder and new names to sell the evolving standards of decency. An institution can chop aborted babies for sale and bankroll a sitting president\u2013 not in a bad day for God at the Box Office but in real-life chemistry starring Planned Parenthood and the White House. \u00a0 While secular humanism attempts a case for man\u2019s inherent capacity for good, Dostoyevsky insists that the question of what constitutes moral conduct, without God in the picture, is open to contradictions as it is informed by self-interest. Mistakes of history in the ferment of fanaticism, outbreak of atheism and enforcement of ideology are materials of vision and conversation in Dostoyevsky\u2019s major novels. His accomplishment consists largely in his pursuit of the great questions of life, in their varied categorisations, to their logical conclusion. His characters, often psychologically tortured individuals and sites of disparate world views, translate broadly subscribed ideas from abstract space to everyday life. For Dostoyevsky, the problem of existence lies \u201cnot in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.\u201d He agonises over the nature of man, the essence of life and the place of God in the world. Dostoyevsky merits Malcolm Muggeridge\u2019s portrayal of him as a \u201cspy of God.\u201d While he is occupied with the commonplace, he searches deeper than the ordinary writer \u2013 he shatters the \u201cthe givenness of things\u201d and assumed answers. His observation that stars brighten as night deepens might have been made from a theological perspective but it equally explains the growing significance of his work in an antagonising spiritual climate. \u00a0 The pitch at which he struggles with the burden of meaning is elevated and demanding yet honesty, more than sophistication, seems to be the passcode for getting into his work. The crowning work of Dostoyevsky\u2019s genius is probably \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov.\u201d The book commands vast acclaim, with Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Franz Kafka among its warm admirers. With such a varied following and respect across major disciplines, the essential Dostoyevsky who obsesses over the broken signal between man and his Maker tends to be obscured. He once complains elesewhere that exclusive attention for his narrative facility obscures his principal intent of pointing his audience to faith. \u00a0 In \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d Dostoyevsky foregrounds, in a story revolving around parricide, the dialogue between faith and unbelief in a novel which has secured a monumental rating in world literature. Despite its prohibiting length, the novel is engaging both for the narrative and the contesting tendencies of Fyodor Karamazov\u2019s sons, Dimtri the sensualist, Ivan the rationalist and Alyosha the novice, and the Christian apologist Father Zosma. The high point of the novel is the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor passage, set in unusual apologetic mode, in which Ivan presents the basis of his unbelief to his pious young brother. One of the accomplishments of the passage is its clear-cut distinction between biblical Christianity and institutionalised Christendom. The career-oriented and material-minded trending creeds and the historically bungling older forms whose baggage includes inquisitions and crusades are not spared. Curiously, the passage is claimed by both Christians and atheists as defense chest for their beliefs. However, Dostoyevsky is essentially discussing the implications of rejecting God, thereby short-circuiting both atheism and the instutionalised excesses of Western Christendom. Dostoyevsky himself had struggled with doubt but rediscovered faith while serving time in Siberia. \u00a0 The dialogue between faith and secular tendencies characterises much of his subsequent work but in the end, the Bible-beater triumphs over the sceptic. \u00a0\u00a0 While Dostoyevsky is troubled with the perversion of the truth by religious institutions, he is drawn to the primitive and pure faith of the Bible. \u00a0 \u201cI believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly, and more perfect than the Saviour; I say to myself with jealous love that not only is there no one else like Him, but that there could be no one,\u201d he intimates in a letter. \u201cI would even say more: If anyone could prove to me that Christis outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth,\u201d he says. \u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d one of Dostoyevsky\u2019s more familiar works, narrates a young nihilist\u2019s murder of a pawnbroker and an unfortunate witness. However, it is essentially a story of spiritual regeneration. The criminal, Raskolnikov, who cannot bear the weight of his guilt, ultimately renounces pride and finds Christ. The novel was a subject of both censure and acclaim. Nihilist critics took offense while others saw a work of staggering genius underpinned by profound spiritual implications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=433\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-08T12:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-25T15:10:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cdn.collider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-idiot-fyodor-dostoevsky-book-cover.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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\/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Abolition of God | Blockspace","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=433","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Abolition of God | Blockspace","og_description":"The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky\u2019s novels prefigure mankind\u2019s progress through history with a depth of field which goes light years beyond time travel. \u00a0\u00a0 The novelist considers the implications for the future from ideas which started routing for establishment during his time. By the time his native Russia became the world\u2019s first officially atheist state, the unsettling implications has been articulated in his work. Dostoyevsky\u2019s great novels, \u201cThe Idiot,\u201d \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d \u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d and \u201cThe Demons,\u201d set him apart in the canon of world literature for their prophetic magnitude. Dostoyevsky\u2019s apocalyptic vision of a world unhinged from the centre, of mankind detached from the source, holds especially for the present. His observation in \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov\u201d that \u201cwithout God, everything is permitted,\u201d captures succinctly the problem of the 21st century. \u201cThe man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love,\u201d Dostoyevsky observes. A supposition is taken for granted that atheism is the default intellectual state as faith has been marked out as the b\u00eate noire of modernity. The invasive ferment of evil predicted in his novels is spreading full circle. Self-interest and situational ethics run the thread of modern cultures. Offhand, we could discuss constitutional euphemisms for murder and new names to sell the evolving standards of decency. An institution can chop aborted babies for sale and bankroll a sitting president\u2013 not in a bad day for God at the Box Office but in real-life chemistry starring Planned Parenthood and the White House. \u00a0 While secular humanism attempts a case for man\u2019s inherent capacity for good, Dostoyevsky insists that the question of what constitutes moral conduct, without God in the picture, is open to contradictions as it is informed by self-interest. Mistakes of history in the ferment of fanaticism, outbreak of atheism and enforcement of ideology are materials of vision and conversation in Dostoyevsky\u2019s major novels. His accomplishment consists largely in his pursuit of the great questions of life, in their varied categorisations, to their logical conclusion. His characters, often psychologically tortured individuals and sites of disparate world views, translate broadly subscribed ideas from abstract space to everyday life. For Dostoyevsky, the problem of existence lies \u201cnot in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.\u201d He agonises over the nature of man, the essence of life and the place of God in the world. Dostoyevsky merits Malcolm Muggeridge\u2019s portrayal of him as a \u201cspy of God.\u201d While he is occupied with the commonplace, he searches deeper than the ordinary writer \u2013 he shatters the \u201cthe givenness of things\u201d and assumed answers. His observation that stars brighten as night deepens might have been made from a theological perspective but it equally explains the growing significance of his work in an antagonising spiritual climate. \u00a0 The pitch at which he struggles with the burden of meaning is elevated and demanding yet honesty, more than sophistication, seems to be the passcode for getting into his work. The crowning work of Dostoyevsky\u2019s genius is probably \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov.\u201d The book commands vast acclaim, with Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Franz Kafka among its warm admirers. With such a varied following and respect across major disciplines, the essential Dostoyevsky who obsesses over the broken signal between man and his Maker tends to be obscured. He once complains elesewhere that exclusive attention for his narrative facility obscures his principal intent of pointing his audience to faith. \u00a0 In \u201cThe Brothers Karamazov,\u201d Dostoyevsky foregrounds, in a story revolving around parricide, the dialogue between faith and unbelief in a novel which has secured a monumental rating in world literature. Despite its prohibiting length, the novel is engaging both for the narrative and the contesting tendencies of Fyodor Karamazov\u2019s sons, Dimtri the sensualist, Ivan the rationalist and Alyosha the novice, and the Christian apologist Father Zosma. The high point of the novel is the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor passage, set in unusual apologetic mode, in which Ivan presents the basis of his unbelief to his pious young brother. One of the accomplishments of the passage is its clear-cut distinction between biblical Christianity and institutionalised Christendom. The career-oriented and material-minded trending creeds and the historically bungling older forms whose baggage includes inquisitions and crusades are not spared. Curiously, the passage is claimed by both Christians and atheists as defense chest for their beliefs. However, Dostoyevsky is essentially discussing the implications of rejecting God, thereby short-circuiting both atheism and the instutionalised excesses of Western Christendom. Dostoyevsky himself had struggled with doubt but rediscovered faith while serving time in Siberia. \u00a0 The dialogue between faith and secular tendencies characterises much of his subsequent work but in the end, the Bible-beater triumphs over the sceptic. \u00a0\u00a0 While Dostoyevsky is troubled with the perversion of the truth by religious institutions, he is drawn to the primitive and pure faith of the Bible. \u00a0 \u201cI believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly, and more perfect than the Saviour; I say to myself with jealous love that not only is there no one else like Him, but that there could be no one,\u201d he intimates in a letter. \u201cI would even say more: If anyone could prove to me that Christis outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth,\u201d he says. \u201cCrime and Punishment,\u201d one of Dostoyevsky\u2019s more familiar works, narrates a young nihilist\u2019s murder of a pawnbroker and an unfortunate witness. However, it is essentially a story of spiritual regeneration. The criminal, Raskolnikov, who cannot bear the weight of his guilt, ultimately renounces pride and finds Christ. The novel was a subject of both censure and acclaim. Nihilist critics took offense while others saw a work of staggering genius underpinned by profound spiritual implications","og_url":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=433","og_site_name":"Blockspace","article_published_time":"2015-11-08T12:27:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-25T15:10:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/cdn.collider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-idiot-fyodor-dostoevsky-book-cover.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"hardsouth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hardsouth","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=433#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=433"},"author":{"name":"hardsouth","@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a336a678f28eacb341ce63c6b84b17d0"},"headline":"Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Abolition of 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