Supposing that an alien culture would like to understand and perceive the main traits of humanity, and one of them would certainly be Christianity, both as religion and way of being, a very good point to begin with in its knowledge would surely be the works of F. M. Dostoevsky. I won’t exhaustively explain this evidence, but it seems to be the most compact and concentrated trait of Christian morals. This is especially explicit in The Karamazov brothers, in the figures of Alexei Karamazov and Zosima, yet more over in the general development of the books, the thoughts and ideas that compose it (to which we would return). Giving away the lower part of religion, the exoteric one (and through this I mean: the gray mass, the simple peasants, people that receive superficially the divine message) we would find there the inner message Christianity brings: its meaning, in a word. In a subjective way, the essence of Christianity has always been for me a mystery. I couldn’t understand a thing, maybe because this exoteric part is still not sufficient and it still doesn’t really bring the necessary light and order. We could not receive a thing from burning a candle without knowing and sensing the symbolic meaning it has, we cannot “talk to god” when we don’t know what specifically does a prayer mean, we cannot understand the Bible without a deep sense both intellectually and inherently, we cannot be Christians in an authentic way when we don’t know what exactly this belief supposes (but more over, we can’t be such without a revelation). I do not bet for being Christian, nor do I think about this religion as about a special one, my only attempt is to synthesize its core for at least a little clarification.
Two extremes
I. The very first thing that strikes us from the start is the revelation. This is amazingly clear in the experience Alex had. And more over, a very important thing in all of this is the accent Dostoevsky puts on his realistic nature. For this means that his belief is from the start radically different from an “exoteric”, profane one. Not that he does not believe in miracles, but that he is inclined naturally to overlook them, to have a special approach to them, may we say cold and equilibrated. Not the miracles interest Alex in the higher world, but the true living, the eternal one. And here we have two absolutely suggestive phrases from the book: “If a realist once believes, then he namely grace to his realism should allow a miracle” and “Once only he begun thoughtful in a serious way, amazed by the fact that god and eternity exist, then he immediately told himself: “I want to live for immortality, but I don’t accept the halved compromise.”” The denial of the “halved compromise” is crucial in here. It could make you tremble. This is the adequate essence of a revelation: this cannot be told or described, but it changes you from inside, so you can no longer live as before. This is not a forced change, a restructure of the visions by reason or some other means; this is mainly a rebirth, so it won’t allow you to turn back anymore. We can clearly see this in the example of Alexei: he found strange and impossible to live as before. “It was told: “Give away everything and follow me, if you want to be perfect.” Alexei told himself: “I can’t give instead of “everything” only 2 rubles…etc.”” So through revelation, without any complications and influences of a religious nature, this hero would know God into himself and dedicate his life to the Eternal. This, by no means, should be understood as something trivial. We must understand that there must be something very serious and deep that could make people renounce to the worldly life, and this is – revelation.
I.2 Yet should we recall one other example, that would be the one of Zosima. He talks about his youth and a special event that changed its turn. I won’t give details about the secondary facts; the essential one is that he, being a military, used to play a duel with the husband of a lady he liked as young gentleman. Such combats were a common thing in modern Russia, so, generically it was nothing immoral or “bad” in the society’s acceptance. It was even a pride to participate in such a fight and it was a shame for the one who didn’t, or turned off from the “duty” to defend his self-importance this way.
One day before the fight, Zosima returned home and being bad-tempered and mad has beaten his comrade. Once again, such a thing was usual and never a reason for remorse for him. But something happened the morning after.
Waking up, Zosima felt something new. He admired the birds and the sunlight, the fresh day… and something seemed like “moved” from its course. What exactly? He suddenly remembered the words of his brother: “Truly, every one of us is guilty in front of anything and everything, but none of us knows about this…and if we knew, we would immediately be in heaven.” Such a strange phrase at the first sight turned to him absolutely clear after so many years and suddenly, the whole truth has been revealed to him: the fight a day before, the coming one, his entire life… “Gentlemen – look around to these divine gifts: the clear sky, the clean air, the gentle grass, the birds, the nature is wonderful and pure, we only are Godless and stupid, and we don’t understand that life is heaven, because it suffices only wanting to understand, and immediately would it begin in its entire beauty, and we would embrace each other and cry.” This is the crucial thought in his awakening. What should be pointed here is that he renounced to the combat (but still he didn’t run from the enemy’s shot, which is a sign of nobility: he didn’t renounce to the battle out of being too fearful or weak, but his denial of such acts is to be considered absolute and brave) without fearing for his social status after, about the shame or anything else. It was a humble act, but in an infinitely profound way. More over, this act has been regarded as something noble and wise even by the society. In a way, it was a kind of revelation for them too.
II. Smerdiakov. There’s an impressive chapter on this hero, where we could admire a very original, yet exponential example. Smerdiakov didn’t have any revelation. But he, from the very start, is a mystical nature. So being mystical without having a revelation, without being initiated and enlightened is also a drama. But he, in any case, has shown the other extreme side of the belief. He talks about a martyr killed by the Muslims in the Caucasus; the Muslims, we should point out, asked the Christian to renounce to his religion, and when he didn’t agree – they killed him. But the essential is the commentary Smerdiakov makes. He says: “if I had such a deep belief so I would move the mountains, how could those Muslims ever kill me? And if I don’t have such a power of belief, I’m not worth dying for God, so I would definitely renounce to His name.” What should be pointed here is the hunger for miracles he has. He sough for God, that is absolutely clear from the dialogues, (that gives us the right to call him "mystical") but yet, the ways he walks upon are more about rejection and the other extreme that doesn’t accept the halved compromise: nothingness. But he, still, is far in front of the gray mass and the profane ones.
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