Dostoevsky – Love Your Neighbor
Introduction
When one thinks of a discussion on a theologian, one’s mind naturally goes to someone connected with the professional ministry or whose prime occupation was that of a theologian. We can throw out many names from Augustine to Martin Luther to John Calvin to Karl Barth. But we have also encountered others who have contributed immensely to Christian thought that were not professional theologians. These include C.S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton and Philip Yancey. But even these are quickly associated as Christian thinkers. But one can often find surprising insight outside of these circles.
When I first read the account of the Grand Inquisitor in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, I was enthralled. I actually read it several times before I could move on in the novel. The section was rich in themes from the Gospels. Not only that but Dostoevsky was able to relate these themes to issues that resonate today in the post-modern 21st century although he wrote the novel in the 19th century imperial Russia. How true it is that as the more things change the more they stay the same. The Brothers Karamazov has become one of my favorite novels that I have read and highly recommend it if you have the time – it is a lengthy book!
Background
Fydor Dostoevsky is considered one of the greatest Russian writers right alongside with Leo Tolstoy. His final book The Brothers Karamazov rivals Tolstoy’s War and Peace as perhaps the greatest novel produced in the Russian language. The book centers on the story of four brothers and their father. The father, Fyodor, was by no means an exemplary father. On the contrary he was rather selfish and ruthless and in the end he his murdered. The plot revolves around which one of his sons had the motive to kill him. It is interesting that Dostoevsky gives the father his own name of Fyodor.
The oldest son, Dmitry, is the sensualist. He is the one that pursues the desires of this life with abandon. At one point he even falls in love with the same woman that his father desires. Ivan is the intellectual and the atheist. He represents many in Russia at the time who became disillusioned with the status quo and which eventually led to the communist revolution after Dostoevsky’s death. Alyosha is the mystic. He has a pure heart that tries to understand the world around him. He becomes involved with the church, represents the believer, and is the one that bears Dostoevsky’s favor in the novel. The fourth son, Smerdyakov, is an illegitimate son who is cunning but is perceived as rather slow.
The parable of the Grand Inquisitor is part of a lengthy discourse from a meeting between Alyosha and Ivan. Ivan is catching Alyosha up on his life and they begin to discuss Ivan’s unbelief. In short, the Grand Inquisitor is Ivan’s parable on the state of the church and religion. But as I prepared to write on that parable I had to back up a little to what set that parable up. As I did that, I was reminded that the prologue to the parable is worthy of some attention as well. It is also rich in discussion between Alyosha and Ivan. We too often polish themes from the Bible without addressing how they relate to us in real life. Dostoevsky had no qualms in working through what that looked like in the ugliness of life.
Love Your Neighbor
I will begin with Ivan’s statement that he doesn’t quite understand what it means to love one’s neighbor. In my own life my theology can be understood through a simple filter – everything is to be viewed through Mark 12:28-34. There, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment was. Jesus responds with the expected “Love the Lord your God.” But he then adds to that, the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Why would Jesus do this? I believe it is because the way you know you carry out the first commandment correctly is reflected in how you carry out the second. Almost every problem in the church can somehow be traced to the separation of the two. This love of neighbor is discussed throughout the New Testament (NT). Paul says this in several places. In Romans 13:10 he says love is the fulfillment of the Law. In Galatians 5:14, he saws that the entire law is summed up in “Love your neighbor as yourself”. John states the same several times through out 1 John. But it can be summed up in 1 John 4:21-22. Basically, if we do not love our brother we do not love God.
But there is a problem. It is much easier to “love” a God who we do not see then to love someone we do see. The Christian walk is not detached from this life like many of us would like it to be. It is just not on the other side of this life. It has to be in this life too. Jesus pulled eternity into the here and now when he said, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Ivan eloquently points this out in his conversation with his brother Alyosha. He notes that he can conceive of loving someone far away. But that is quite a different matter than loving someone close. The person far away doesn’t show their ugliness to us. They don’t rub us wrong or inconvenience us. But the person close can be irritating, ugly, and inconvenient. Ivan states, “If I must love my fellow man, he had better hide himself, for no sooner do I see his face than there’s an end to my love for him.”
I live in suburbia America. I don’t go much into hospitals. I don’t visit prisons. Every once in a while I think about doing something for the homeless. The reality is that most everyone I come across is not murderous, they smell good for the most part, they are well groomed, and they are not so ugly to look at. In short, I am NOT inconvenienced much other than they may rub me wrong personality wise. I am sheltered. And even then I find it hard to love some people! 18th century Russia was much different than 21st century suburban America. There was rampant poverty, disease, and ugliness everywhere.
When Jesus was asked who a neighbor was he responded with the parable of the good Samaritan. The parable is well known but not well applied. Rather we could equate it to something like this. Imagine, for whatever reason, we are hiking around in Iraq. We happen to come across a
Taliban man lying just off the trail. He has been seriously hurt and is almost unconscious. There is blood everywhere. He stinks as well because he’s been in the mountains for a while hiding from the authorities. What do you do? Another example is to hang out with Mother Theresa’s Sisters of Mercy in Calcutta, India. Can we reach down and pick up a 40-year old man lying in the gutter, in filth and with open sores or leprosy?
Ivan was pointing out that we could love when we are not inconvenienced. But it is another when we have to reach out of our comfort zone. Ivan notes that it was possible for Jesus to love because he was God. It is another matter for us. He states, “It is almost never possible to love him at close quarters.” It is easy for us to send money to homeless charities to assuage our conscious but at home how many of us are willing to pick up a drunk out of the gutter or sewer when he has passed out?