Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (trans. MacAndrew, AR)
“It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt.”
“Loneliness is abolished in God. ….[Boredom] provides a reason for more fervent prayer, and the difficulties are an opportunity for spiritual maturity and progress.”
What do these quotes have in common? Both are cited from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Over and over again, books we discuss in the Book Discussion Group quote The Brothers Karamazov. What makes this secular book so quotable by Orthodox writers?
Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky (1) has written, “Regeneration is what Dostoevsky wrote about in all his novels: repentance and regeneration, falling into sin and correction...” (2) It has been said that Dostoevsky was moved “throughout his career by love for mankind and used his own suffering to find insight into everyman’s struggle with the violence of pride, lust, envy and hatred. ….Concentrating on the psychology of repentance and the redemptive power of love, he devoted himself to untying the knot of human self-destruction…With constant reference to the Orthodox spiritual tradition, he wrote ‘on behalf of all and for all.’ His early work admires Christ and seeks ideals in His example; he later articulates Orthodoxy itself as the truth underlying the best in his early work.” (3)
Perhaps what makes The Brothers Karamazov so quotable is the influence that St. Isaac's Ascetical Homilies figured into Dostoevsky’s work.(4) Maybe, more generally, The Brothers Karamazov is so quotable because it reflects “Orthodox Christianity, (as it is) rooted in a mystical understanding of life as a covenant and/ or worship as a sacrament¸ ... the secret underpinning of the mysterious ‘ Russian soul,’ …(which) makes Russian literature, art, and music so special.” (5)
Join us on October 24 at 7:00 p.m. to discuss this captivating book. The Brothers Karamazov is available for sale in the church bookstore or for borrowing in the library.
(1) Russian theologian of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and founder of the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile in the early days of the Soviet terror.
(2)Khrapovitsky, Bl. Met. Antony of Kiev, Dostoevsky‘s Concept of Spiritual Rebirth, trans. L. Koehler. Synaxis Press: Dewdney, B.C., 1980, p. 11.
(3) Starr D. “Doestovesky’s Spiritual Therapy.” Reprint of a talk¸ St. John the Russian Orthodox Church, Ipswich, MA, Great Lent, 2009. Accessed 8/19/2013. http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/01/dostoevskys-spiritual-therapy.html).
(3) Starr D. “Doestovesky’s Spiritual Therapy.” Reprint of a talk¸ St. John the Russian Orthodox Church, Ipswich, MA, Great Lent, 2009. Accessed 8/19/2013. http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/01/dostoevskys-spiritual-therapy.html).
(4) Cairns, S. Saint Isaak of Syria and the Responsibility of Each for All. Accessed 8/19/2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-cairns/the-responsibility-of-eac_b_684745.html.
(5)Lowenfeld, JH (trans). In: Everyday Saints and Other Stories. Shevkunov T. Pokrov Publications¸ 2012, p.ix.
