The Religion of Dostoevsky

Why has Dostoevsky influenced so much of the religious thinking of our times? His impact on modern theologians--Barth for example--has been great and thousands of his readers have been stirred by his extraordinary power to register metaphysical insights in narrative form. This fresh and subtle study of Dostoevskys life and writing demonstrates that the great Russians relevance for our day lies in his perception that religious faith and philosophic doubt are inseparable in his illustration that the practice of religion and intellectual scruples belong together and actually enhance each other. Gibson records what is known from outside the novels of his successive engagements and disengagements with the Christian faith. He then traces chronologically the path of Dostoevskys developing thoughts and feelings as presented in the novels themselves and his sentiments as distributed among his characters. Especially illuminating is the authors analysis of the dichotomies that make up the fascinating puzzle of Dostoevskys complexity. Overlapping but never coinciding are the two perspectives of reflective artist and journalist-reporter. Buttressing Dostoevskys dialectical method of thinking was the literary device of the double the character with contradictory ways of thought and behavior. Gibson shows how all these factors structured Dostoevskys depiction of mental moral and religious ambiguities. This stimulating guide which takes the reader from Notes from Underground through The Brothers Karamazov explores the polarities of reason and faith as the irreconcilables that Dostoevsky constantly tries to reconcile. Everyone who has found his own vision of ethics or of religion expanded by Dostoevskys work will find this literary study provocative and informative. Professor A. Boyce Gibson who died in 1972 was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne Australia and a lifelong admirer of Dostoevskys novels.