Reflection 3

Does the theme reinforce or oppose popular notions of life? Does it furnish a new insight or refresh or deepen an old one?

The stance that Dostoevsky takes, one that favours religious belief, opposes popular notions of life from his contemporary Russia and from our modern world. “The isolation that prevails everywhere, above all in our age- it has not fully developed, it has not reached its limit yet. For everyone strives to keep his individuality as apart as possible, wishes to secure the greatest possible fullness of life for himself; but meantime all his efforts result not in attaining fullness of life but self-destruction, for instead of self-realisation he ends by arriving at complete solitude. All mankind in our age have split up into units, they all keep apart, each in his own groove; each one holds aloof, hides himself and hides what he has, from the rest, and he ends by being repelled by others and repelling them. He heaps up riches by himself and thinks, ‘How strong I am now and how secure,’ and in his madness he does not understand that the more he heaps up, the more he sinks into self-destructive impotence. For he is accustomed to rely upon himself alone and to cut himself off from the whole; he has trained himself not to believe in the help of others, in men and in humanity, and only trembles for fear he should lose his money and the privileges that he has won for himself. Everywhere in these days men have, in their mockery, ceased to understand that the true security is to be found in social solidarity rather than in isolated individual effort. But this terrible individualism must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another. It will be the spirit of the time, and people will marvel that they have sat so long in darkness without seeing the light. And then the sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the heavens …. But, until then, we must keep the banner flying. Sometimes even if he has to do it alone, and his conduct seems to be crazy, a man must set an example, and so draw men’s souls out of their solitude, and spur them to some act of brotherly love, that the great idea may not die.” (158-159). This monologue from a man who has examined himself and turned to religious faith after murdering in a fit of passion, is a rejection of his own world and our world today. It is very uncanny how Dostoevsky in this section saw into the future. For our own time is one of extreme isolation. Our capitalist society pits us against one another and our consumerist society values material goods over spiritual wellbeing. The sentiment that Dostoevsky expresses may have been common to Russian intellectuals and foreshadowed their rejection of capitalism and their love of the purest sentiments of communism.

The religious way of life that Zossima preaches are the antithesis of the shallow and miserable life described in the above excerpt. Through Zossima, Dostoevsky preaches humility, equality, fraternity (as in reflection 2’s excerpt). He teaches us to love unconditionally “Brothers, have no fear of men’s sin. Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day” (167). He teaches us to judge no one, that we all sin and share responsibility for sin: “Remember particularly that you cannot be a judge of anyone. For no one can judge a criminal until he recognizes that he is just such a criminal as the man standing before him, and that he perhaps is more than all men to blame for that crime. When he understands that, he will be able to be a judge. …If you can take upon yourself the crime of the criminal your heart is judging, take it at once, suffer for him yourself, and let go without reproach. And even if the law itself makes you his judge, act in the same spirit so far as possible, for he will go away and condemn himself more bitterly than you have done. If, after your kiss, he goes away untouched, mocking at you, do not let that be a stumbling-block to you. It shows his time has not yet come, but it will come in due course. And if it come not, no matter; if not he then another in his place will understand and suffer, and judge and condemn himself, and the truth will be fulfilled. Believe that, believe it without doubt; for in that leis all the hope and faith of the saints” (168). He connects altruism and faith. (However, he says that if some people slip through the cracks, we should find comfort that some greater truth will be fulfilled that is greater than each man. This is an example of a point where I disagree with his teachings: I think we should care more about each person than an abstract idea.) He teaches that we must do all these things perpetually and not seek external affirmations but be satisfied with the knowledge that we are doing good (167). These interpretations of the Christian faith are not new, yet they are new to me. They have greatly humbled me and I feel the beauty and goodness of these teachings. I guess my initial rejection of religion was based on “incorrect” interpretations of religion. Religion itself is neither good nor bad, but just how you use it. ...At the same time, I must ask why do people need religion to remind them about this? I think Zossima's teachings are the basic tenents of being a good, kind, decent human being; these values are not exclusively Christian...