The Grand Inquisitor

Last updated
The Grand Inquisitor
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Grand inquisitor.JPG
Standalone copy of the chapter "The Grand Inquisitor"
Country Russian Empire
Language Russian
Genre(s) Poem, parable, philosophical fiction, story within a story
Pages22

"The Grand Inquisitor" is a story within a story (called a poem by its fictional author) contained within Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov. It is recited by Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov, during a conversation with his brother Alexei, a novice monk, about the possibility of a personal and benevolent God. "The Grand Inquisitor" is an important part of the novel and one of the best-known passages in modern literature because of its ideas about human nature and freedom.

Contents

In a long diatribe directed at Jesus Himself, who has returned to Earth in Seville at the height of the Inquisition, the Grand Inquisitor defends the following ideas: only the principles of the devil can lead to mankind's unification; give man bread, control his conscience, and rule the world; Jesus limited himself to a small group of chosen ones, while the Catholic Church improved on his work and addresses all people; the church rules the world in the name of God, but with the devil's principles; Jesus was mistaken in holding man in high esteem. Jesus remains silent throughout the Inquisitor's speech.

Scholars cite Friedrich Schiller's play Don Carlos (1787) as a major inspiration for Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, while also noting that "The sources of the legend are extraordinarily varied and complex." [1]

Synopsis

The tale is told by Ivan with brief interruptive questions by Alyosha. In the tale, Christ returns to Earth in Seville at the time of the Inquisition. He performs a number of miracles (echoing miracles from the Gospels). The people recognize him and adore him at the Seville Cathedral, but he is arrested by Inquisition leaders and sentenced to be burnt to death the next day. The Grand Inquisitor visits him in his cell to tell him that the Church no longer needs him. The main portion of the text is devoted to the Inquisitor explaining to Jesus why his return would interfere with the mission of the Church.

The Inquisitor founds his denunciation of Jesus on the three questions that Satan asked Jesus during the temptation of Christ in the desert. These three are the temptation to turn stones into bread, the temptation to cast Himself from the Temple and be saved by the angels, and the temptation to rule over all the kingdoms of the world. The Inquisitor states that Jesus rejected these three temptations in favor of freedom, but the Inquisitor thinks that Jesus has misjudged human nature. He does not believe that the vast majority of humanity can tolerate the freedom that Jesus has given to them. The Inquisitor thus implies that Jesus, in giving humans freedom to choose, has excluded the majority of humanity from redemption and doomed it to suffer.

Despite declaring the Inquisitor to be a nonbeliever, Ivan also has the Inquisitor saying that the Catholic Church follows "the wise spirit, the dread spirit of death and destruction." He says: "We are not with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him." For the Inquisitor, it is the Devil who provided the tools to end human suffering and unite humanity under the banner of the Church. With the church thus correctly organized, the multitude is guided by the few who are strong enough to take on the burden of freedom. The Inquisitor says that under him, all mankind will live and die happily in ignorance. Though he leads them only to "death and destruction", they will be happy along the way, for he and his representatives in the church will relieve them of the terrible burden of freedom of conscience: "The most agonizing secrets of their consciences – all, all will they bring to us, and we shall resolve it all, and they will attend our decision with joy, because it will deliver them from the great anxiety and fearsome torments of free and individual decision." [2]

The Inquisitor advances this argument by explaining why Christ was wrong to reject each temptation by Satan. Christ should have turned stones into bread, as men will always follow those who will feed their bellies, and will also follow him who they see is capable of producing miracles. The Inquisitor recalls how Christ rejected this, saying "man cannot live on bread alone", and explains to Christ: "Feed men, and then ask of them virtue! That's what they'll write on the banner they'll raise against Thee and with which they will destroy Thy temple." Casting himself down from the temple to be caught by angels would cement his godhood in the minds of people, who would follow him forever. Ruling over all the kingdoms of the Earth would ensure their salvation, the Grand Inquisitor claims.

The segment ends when Christ, who has remained silent throughout, kisses the Inquisitor on his "bloodless, aged lips". The Inquisitor releases Christ but tells him never to return. Christ, still silent, leaves into "the dark alleys of the city". Ivan concludes: "The kiss burns in his heart, but the old man adheres to his idea".

After relating the tale, Ivan asks Alyosha if he "renounces" Ivan for his views. Alyosha responds by giving Ivan a soft kiss on the lips, to which the delighted Ivan replies: "That's plagiarism... Thank you, though". The brothers part soon afterward.

Background

For Dostoevsky, the character of the Grand Inquisitor represents a prototypical expression of an ideology that denies Christ's true spiritual and historical significance and affirms its opposite. The Grand Inquisitor's anti-Christian philosophy is ironically accentuated by its appearance within an institutionally Christian context, but Dostoevsky identifies this same negation at the root of the socialist, nihilist and materialist doctrines of his contemporaries. [3] In a letter to his publisher, he writes that Ivan, through the Grand Inquisitor, openly "declares himself in favour of what the devil advocates". The Grand Inquisitor speaks the same doctrine as Russian socialism, except that the socialists would never admit it openly. Ivan, however, is "a sincere person who comes right out and admits that he agrees with the Inquisitor's view of humanity and that Christ's faith elevated man to a much higher level than where he actually stands." For the socialists, according to Dostoevsky, Christ's law is "burdensome and abstract, too heavy for weak people to bear—and instead of the law of Freedom and Enlightenment, they offer them the law of chains and enslavement through bread." [4] Dostoevsky's notes contain passages that are more extreme than those eventually used. According to Edward Wasiolek, it is emphatically asserted in these notes that "it is Christ who is guilty and cruel, and it is the Grand Inquisitor who is kind and innocent. It is Christ who demands that men suffer for Him, whereas the Grand Inquisitor suffers for men." [5]

According to Joseph Frank, the prototype for the character of the Inquisitor can be found in Schiller's Don Carlos : "The play shares the same justification for the existence of evil in the world, the same answer to the problem of theodicy, that is at the heart of Dostoevsky's legend." [6]

Significance within the novel

Dostoevsky's intention with "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor" was to unmask the fundamental idea that lay behind the entire movement in Russia toward atheism, nihilism, rationalism and materialism, and away from the true Christian faith that was the spiritual heart of the nation. [7] Within the novel as a whole, this idea is expressed most rigorously and eloquently through the character of Ivan Fyodorovich: the 'poem' is Ivan's composition, and the ideas, dogmas, assertions, suggestions and equivocations expressed in the Inquisitor's monologue are the same ones at work within Ivan's tormented intellect and personal struggle for faith and identity. Though the poem's outward form is that of a monologue, a close analysis reveals its essentially dialogic nature, as an artistic representation of Ivan's idea in its encounters with other voices, both in the world and within himself. According to Mikhail Bakhtin, detailed analysis of the Legend reveals

a profound participation of all elements of Ivan's worldview in his internal dialogue with himself and in his internally polemical interrelations with others. For all its external proportionality, the "Legend" is nevertheless full of interruptions; both the very form of its construction as The Grand Inquisitor's dialogue with Christ and at the same time with himself, and, finally, the very unexpectedness and duality of its finale, indicate an internally dialogic disintegration at its very ideological core. [8]

Influence

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fyodor Dostoevsky</span> Russian novelist (1821–1881)

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, sometimes transliterated as Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature, as many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces. Dostoevsky's literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tikhon of Zadonsk</span>

Tikhon of Zadonsk was an 18th-century Russian Orthodox bishop and spiritual writer whom the Eastern Orthodox Church glorified (canonized) as a saint in 1861.

<i>The Brothers Karamazov</i> 1880 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov, also translated as The Karamazov Brothers, is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger from January 1879 to November 1880. Dostoevsky died less than four months after its publication. It has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.

<i>Demons</i> (Dostoevsky novel) 1871 Russian-language book

Demons is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1871–72. It is considered one of the four masterworks written by Dostoevsky after his return from Siberian exile, along with Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Demons is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large-scale tragedy. Joyce Carol Oates has described it as "Dostoevsky's most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfactorily 'tragic' work." According to Ronald Hingley, it is Dostoevsky's "greatest onslaught on Nihilism", and "one of humanity's most impressive achievements—perhaps even its supreme achievement—in the art of prose fiction." Many great writers including Joseph Brodsky, Marek Hłasko, Sergei Dovlatov have lauded it as the greatest novel ever written.

An inquisitor was an official in an Inquisition led by the Roman Catholic Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew 4</span> Chapter of the New Testament

Matthew 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament of Christian Bible. Many translations of the gospel and biblical commentaries separate the first section of chapter 4 from the remaining sections, which deal with Jesus' first public preaching and the gathering of his first disciples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew 4:3</span> Verse of the Bible

Matthew 4:3 is the third verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. This verse opens the section in Matthew dealing with the temptation of Christ by Satan. Jesus has been fasting for forty days and forty nights, and in this verse the devil gives Christ his first temptation by encouraging him to use his powers to get food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew 4:6</span> Verse of the Bible

Matthew 4:6 is the sixth verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Jesus has just rebuffed "the tempter's" first temptation; in this verse, the devil presents Jesus with a second temptation while they are standing on the pinnacle of the temple in the "holy city" (Jerusalem).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew 4:9</span> Verse of the Bible

Matthew 4:9 is the ninth verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It is part of the Temptation of Christ narrative. Jesus has rebuffed two earlier temptations by Satan. In this verse, Satan offers control of the world to Jesus if he agrees to worship him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew 4:11</span> Verse of the Bible

Matthew 4:11 is the eleventh verse of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Jesus has just rebuffed Satan's third temptation and ordered him away. In this last verse of the temptation scene, the devil departs and Jesus is serviced by angels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temptation of Christ</span> Biblical narrative in the gospels

The temptation of Christ is a biblical narrative detailed in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. After being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus was tempted by the devil after 40 days and nights of fasting in the Judaean Desert. At the time, Satan came to Jesus and tried to tempt him. Jesus having refused each temptation, Satan then departed and Jesus returned to Galilee to begin his ministry. During this entire time of spiritual battle, Jesus was fasting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alyosha Karamazov</span> Novel character

Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, usually referred to simply as Alyosha, is the protagonist in the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. He is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers, being nineteen years old at the start of the novel. The preface and the opening chapter proclaim him as the hero. Dostoevsky intended to write a sequel, which would detail the rest of Alyosha's life, but died shortly after the publication of The Brothers Karamazov.

<i>Christus Victor</i> Book regarding theories of atonement in Christianity

Christus Victor is a book by Gustaf Aulén published in English in 1931, presenting a study of theories of atonement in Christianity. The original Swedish title is Den kristna försoningstanken published in 1930. Aulén reinterpreted the classic ransom theory of atonement, which says that Christ's death is a ransom to the powers of evil, which had held humankind in their dominion. It is a model of the atonement that is dated to the Church Fathers, and it was the dominant theory of atonement for a thousand years, until Anselm of Canterbury supplanted it in the West with his satisfaction theory of atonement.

In literature, polyphony is a feature of narrative, which includes a diversity of simultaneous points of view and voices. Caryl Emerson describes it as "a decentered authorial stance that grants validity to all voices". The concept was introduced by Mikhail Bakhtin, using a metaphor based on the musical term polyphony.

<i>The Brothers Karamazov</i> (1969 film) 1969 Soviet Union film

The Brothers Karamazov is a 1969 Soviet film directed by Kirill Lavrov, Ivan Pyryev and Mikhail Ulyanov. It is based on the 1880 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also entered into the 6th Moscow International Film Festival, winning Pyryev a Special Prize.

<i>Anthropocentric</i> (album) 2010 studio album by The Ocean

Anthropocentric is the fifth studio album by German post-metal band The Ocean. It is the second album in a two-album series, following Heliocentric. Anthropocentric continues the critique of Christianity as in its companion album Heliocentric and is the band's first album to feature songwriting credits from other members aside from guitarist Robin Staps. The album was released in North America on 9 November 2010.

<i>Temptations of Christ</i> (Botticelli) Fresco by Sandro Botticelli

The Temptations of Christ is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, executed in 1480–1482 and located in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Themes in Fyodor Dostoevsky's writings</span>

The themes in the writings of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, which consist of novels, novellas, short stories, essays, epistolary novels, poetry, spy fiction and suspense, include suicide, poverty, human manipulation, and morality. Dostoevsky was deeply Eastern Orthodox and religious themes are found throughout his works, especially in those written after his release from prison in 1854. His early works emphasised realism and naturalism, as well as social issues such as the differences between the poor and the rich. Elements of gothic fiction, romanticism, and satire can be found in his writings. Dostoyevsky was "an explorer of ideas", greatly affected by the sociopolitical events which occurred during his lifetime. After his release from prison his writing style moved away from what Apollon Grigoryev called the "sentimental naturalism" of his earlier works and became more concerned with the dramatization of psychological and philosophical themes.

Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics is a book by the 20th century Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. It was originally published in 1929 in Leningrad under the title Problems of Dostoevsky's Creative Art but was re-published with significant additions under the new title in 1963 in Moscow. The book was first translated into English in 1973 by R. William Rotsel but this version is now out of print. Caryl Emerson's 1984 translation is the version now used for academic discussion in English.

Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov is a fictional character from the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Ivan is 24 years old at the start of the novel; he is the elder brother of Alyosha Karamazov, younger brother of Dmitri Karamazov, and the son of Fyodor Karamazov. His relationships with his brothers, his father, and Katerina Ivanovna are hugely important to the novel's plot.

References

  1. Avramenko, R. and Trepanier, L., Dostoevsky's Political Thought, Lexington Books, 2013, p. 110, Note 20.
  2. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (2003). The Brothers Karamazov. Penguin (McDuff translation). p. 298.
  3. Frank, Joseph (2010). Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 788–91.
  4. Letter of June 11 1879, quoted in Frank (2010). p. 792
  5. The Notebooks for The Brothers Karamazov ed. and trans. Edward Wasiolek (Chicago 1971). p. 63
  6. Frank (2010). p. 793
  7. Frank (2010). pp. 788–790, 797–800
  8. Bakhtin, Mikhail (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. University of Minnesota Press. p. 279.
  9. Tim Ashley (2012-12-02). "LPO/Jurowski – review | Music". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2013-10-07.
  10. Dolomede (22 December 2002). "Inquisition (TV Movie 2002)". IMDb.
  11. "The Grand Inquisitor, The Pit, Barbican, London" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  12. "The Grand Inquisitor". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  13. Althusser, Louis (2014). On the Reproduction of Capitalism: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. London: Verso. p. 177.
  14. Cornwell, Neil. "Orhan Pamuk on Dostoevsky". Researchgate. Retrieved 29 March 2022.