Download:

PDF

Author: Tatyana A. Kasatkina
Information about the author:

Doctor of Philological Sciences, Head of the Centre “Dostoevsky and World Culture” at the Gorky Institute of World Literature RAS, Head of the Research Committee for Dostoyevsky's Artistic Heritage within the Scientific Council for the History of World Culture RAS (Moscow).

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For citation:

Kasatkina T.A. Dostoevsky’s Theology: Problems of Understanding and Description. Dostoevsky and World Culture, Philological journal, 2019, No 3(7), pp. 16-33.

Issue: 2019 № 3(7)
Department: HERMENEUTICS. SLOW READING
Pages: 16-33
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2019-3-16-33
UDK: 82+821.161.1+2-1
BBK: 83+83.3(2=411.2)+86.2
Keywords: Dostoevsky, theology, anthropology, personality, “I”, “Masha is laying on the table…”, “Socialism and Christianity”, man in the perspective of God.

Abstract: The first thing to do when speaking about Dostoevsky’s theology, is to describe its fundamental characteristics: those bases that constantly, although in different ways, reveal themselves in all his works (literary texts, A Writer’s Diary, articles about literature and arts, political reviews). The main object Dostoevsky pays attention to is the real nature of man, seen in the perspective of God. His main idea comes to be man’s uncomplete manifestation during his existence in the “proximate and visible in its flowing immediacy”. Therefore, man does not know himself, he is confused; he cannot detect fundamental values, and find for them the right hierarchy. One of the fundamental oppositions in Dostoevsky’s theology concerns the “law of personality” and the “law of personality on Earth” (the existence of personality within the boundaries of the “I”). Depending on which of those two laws lays at the basis of his existence, man will reach opposite destinations through opposite methods, opposite values, and life goals. However, we should not think of the “law of personality on Earth” as something vain and useless, as an erroneous and superfluous condition. The “I” with its severe boundaries is the only place where a “personality in the highest state of its development”, refusing this “I”, can ripen and reach the highest state of its development.

 

References

1. Buzdalov A. Tolkovanie iskushenii Khrista u Dostoevskogo [Interpretations of Christ and Dostoevsky’s temptations]. Available at: https://ruskline.ru/monitoring_smi/2014/10/9/ tolkovanie_iskushenij_hrista_u_dostoevskogo/ (access date: 18.06.2019) (In Russ.)

2. Dostoevskii F.M. Poln. sobr. soch.: v 30 t. [Complete works: in 30 vols.]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1972-1990. (In Russ.)

3. Dostoevskii F.M. Sobr. soch.: v 9 tomakh [Works: in 9 vols.], ed., comm.., prefaced by the Head of the Research Committee for Dostoyevsky's Artistic Heritage (IMLI), Dostor of Philological Sciences T.A. Kasatkina. Dnevnik pisatelia [A Writer’s Diary]. Moscow, Astrel'-AST Publ., 2004. Vol. 9. Book 2. 528 p. (In Russ.)

4. Ivanov V.I. Dostoevskii i roman-tragediia (1911) [Dostoevsky and Tragedy Roman]. Viacheslav Ivanov. Rodnoe i vselenskoe [Native and Universal]. Moscow, Respublika Publ., 1994, pp. 282-336. (In Russ.)

5. Kasatkina T.A. "Zapiski iz podpol'ia' i "Masha lezhit na stole…': Opyt medlennogo chteniia v blizhaishem kontekste [Notes from the Underground and Masha is Lying on the Table…: Experience of slow reading in the closest context]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul'tura, Philological journal, 2018, No 1, pp. 121-147. (In Russ.)

6. Meerson O. Nabokov – apologet: zashchita Luzhina ili zashchita Dostoevskogo? [Nabokov as an apologist: Luzhin’s or Dostoevsky’s defense?]. Dostoevskii i XX vek [Dostoevsky and the 20th century], ed. by T.A. Kasatkina. In 2 vols. Moscow, IMLI RAN Publ., 2007, vol. 1, pp. 358-381. (In Russ.)

7. Pavel Khondzinskii, protoierei. Dostoevskii kak "uchitel' Tserkvi' [Dostoevsky as ‘the Father of Church’]. Available at: http://www.runivers.ru/philosophy/logosphere/450438/ (accessed at: 18.06.2019) (In Russ.)

8. Pavel Khondzinskii, protoierei. "Chistaia liubov'' v poucheniiakh startsa Zosimy' [‘Pure live” in Starets Zosima’s preachings]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul'tura, 2013, No 30, pt. I, pp. 423- 440. (In Russ.)

9. Rozanov V.V. Chem nam dorog Dostoevskii? (1911) [Why is Dostoevsky dear to us?]. Vlastitel' dum. F.M. Dostoevskii v russkoi kritike kontsa XIX – nachala XX veka [Reagent of our dreams. F.M. Dostoevsky in Russian critics of the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th c.]. St. Petersburg, Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1997, pp. 270-278. (In Russ.)

10. Tarasova N.A. Znachenie zaglavnoi bukvy v nabornoi rukopisi rasskaza "Son smeshnogo cheloveka' ("Dnevnik pisatelia' F. M. Dostoevskogo za 1877 god) [The meaning of the capital letter in the typeset of the story “The Dream of A Ridiculous Man” (Dostoevsky’s A Writer’s Diary, 1877]. Russkaia literatura, 2007, No 1, pp. 153-165. Available at: https://literary.ru/ literary.ru/readme.php?subaction=showfull&id=1204025855&archive=1206184915&start_ from=&ucat=& (access date: 18.06.2019) (In Russ.) 

11. Tikhomirov B.N. Diskussionnye voprosy interpretatsii khristianskogo mirovozzreniia Dostoevskogo v svete rabot V.V. Zen'kovskogo [Controversial issues of interpretation of Dostoevsky’s Christian worldview in the context of V.V. Zavadovsky’s works]. Dostoevskii i XX vek [Dostoevsky and the 20th century], ed. by T.A. Kasatkina. In 2 vols. Moscow, IMLI RAN Publ., 2007, vol. 1, pp. 199-216. (In Russ.)

12. Tikhomirov B.N. O "khristologii' Dostoevskogo [About Dostoevsky’s Christology]. Dostoevskii. Materialy i issledovaniia [Dostoevsky. Materials and Researches]. Is. 11. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 1994, pp. 102-122. (In Russ.)

13. Tolstoi L.N. Tak chto zhe nam delat'? [What is to be done?]. L.N. Tolstoi. Sobr. soch.: v 22 t. [Works: in 22 vols.]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaia literature Publ., 1983, vol. 16, pp. 166-399. (In Russ.)

14. Shteinberg A.Z. Sistema svobody Dostoevskogo [Dostoevsky’s freedom system]. Parizh, YMCA-Press Publ., 1980. 145 p. (In Russ.)