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We All Need to Read Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor”
I read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s book, The Brothers Karamazov, on a dare. I struggled with the characters, the religious dialogue, and the sheer weight of 354,00 words written nearly 150 years ago. But buried within the novel’s daunting expanse are 8,000 words of brain-searing gravity. This is the story-within-a-story known as “The Grand Inquisitor.”
In this tale, Dostoevsky asks how the return of Jesus would be received in a later Christian world, especially by those who regularly use Jesus’ name to justify their authority or beliefs. It’s a question we modern readers would be wise to consider as well.
Here’s how Dostoevsky sets the stage: It’s the 16th-century, 1,500 years since the death of Jesus. Jesus promised his followers that he would return but despite all of their pleas and prayers over the centuries, he has not. In Spain, the Inquisition is running full throttle. Heretics are condemned and burned alive in public celebrations known as autos da-fe’s. Seville, Spain is home of the Grand Inquisitor, a 90-year-old cleric with indisputable spiritual and political power. He decides who lives and who dies in hellish agony.
A man who looks like the historical Jesus suddenly appears in Seville’s public square as bodies burn and the seared bones of the condemned hiss and crack in the background. The…
