Zoom Link: ‘How to Navigate an Increasingly Dangerous World’

Live Session Today at 12 noon EDT / 9 a.m. PDT

In the words of Father Zossima:

There is only one means of salvation, then take yourself and make yourself responsible… for as soon as you sincerely make yourself responsible for everything and for all men, you will see at once that it is really so….

Fyodor Dostoyevsky and William Shakespeare no doubt are the reasons Sigmund Freud said: “Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.” Father Zossima is a character in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which grapples with the origin of evil, the nature of freedom, and the place of faith in a world where God is dying. Each character represents a different philosophy and psychology with which one might confront this troubled world.

Fyodor Karamazov responds by being vicious and profligate, insulting every virtue and cheating his way to a small fortune; from his misspent youth issued four brothers Karamazov from three different women. The eldest, Dmitry, is a passionate soldier torn between “Madonna” and “whore”, who ends up competing with his father for his mother’s inheritance as well as the lustful Grushenka. The intellectual Ivan is next, who has a brilliant but overly logical mind that is, much like Rodion Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, capable of arguing that, if there is no God and no afterlife, then “all is permitted.”

Third is the deeply religious Alyosha, who is dedicated to putting Christian love into practice, guided by the teachings of his spiritual mentor, Father Zossima. Finally, illegitimate Smirdyakov, raised by the butler and employed as a lowly servant, has a malicious and poisonous personality. All four sons the father has cared little for other than to let them live; eventually, one of them would not return the favor, and the novel turns into a murder mystery.

In this portrayal, evil happens not because of a few criminals but because of a moral climate that facilitates everyone’s participation. This is the banality of evil, but it is also not the end. Love is far more complex and far-reaching, and life-affirming if we exercise it.

Father Zossima finishes:

… every one of us is undoubtedly responsible for all men and everything on earth, not merely through the general sinfulness of creation, but each one personally for all mankind and every individual man. This knowledge is the crown of life…. Only through that knowledge, our heart grows soft with infinite, universal, inexhaustible love. Then every one of you will have the power to win over the whole world by love and to wash away the sins of the world with your tears.

Announcement:

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