David Gornoski is joined by Surit Dasgupta for a discussion on Surit’s latest essay Christ vs. the Grand Inquisitor, wherein they explore Dostoevsky and Berdyaev’s view on freedom and power. What would Dostoevsky and Berdyaev say about the modern concept of liberty? How does Christ, in Dostoevsky’s literature, resolve the tension between liberty and power? […]
Many argue that human history is cyclical. The saying, “those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” assumes that history is cyclical by default; this is true despite the postmodern ethos of amoral progression. Even those who are renowned for dismissing “slippery slope” arguments have a conditioned fear of somehow finding […]
The Brothers Karamazov is the last novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky; it was initially serialized in 1879 by Russkiy Vestnik magazine. The story of this novel, set in 19th-century Russia, details the contradictory brothers of Alexei, Ivan, and Dmitri Karamazov. Though the majority of the novel deals with the elder brother Dmitri’s attempt to clear himself of parricide, Dostoevsky […]
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” ~Fyodor Dostoevsky Before the Gospel revelation, justice consisted of directing the guilt of the entire society against a single victim. It was widely experienced, just as it is today, that shifting the blame onto another is an effective way of postponing […]