Abstract
The article refutes the widespread view that Dostoevsky's Christian beliefs were strictly Orthodox. It is proved that Dostoevsky's religious and philosophical searches' central tendency is the criticism of historical, ecclesiastical Christianity as a false, distorted form of the teaching of Jesus Christ and the desire to restore this teaching in its original purity. Modern researchers of the history of early Christianity find more and more arguments in favor of the fact that the actual teaching of Jesus Christ is contained in that religious movement, which the church called the Gnostic heresy. The exact philosophical expression of the teaching of Christ was received in the later works of J.G. Fichte, whose ideas had a strong influence on the Russian writer. Like Fichte, Dostoevsky understands Christ as the first person who showed the possibility of revealing God in himself and gaining divine omnipotence and eternal life directly in earthly reality. In this sense, every person can become like Christ. Dostoevsky's main characters walk the path of Christ and show how difficult this path is. The article shows that Dostoevsky used in his work not only the philosophical version of true (Gnostic) Christianity developed by German philosophy (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel), but also the key motives of the Gnostic myth, primarily the idea that our world, filled with evil and suffering, is created not by the supreme, good God-Father, but by the evil Demiurge, the Devil (in this sense, it is hell).
Highlights
The article refutes the widespread view that Dostoevsky's Christian beliefs were strictly Orthodox
Fichte expressed the meaning of the historical opposition between orthodox and Gnostic Christianity, especially clearly in his later religious-philosophical writings. Fichte makes it clear that there are two versions of Christianity in history, and it is the one associated with Gnosticism that the German philosopher considers the true one, developing the teachings of Jesus Christ — as they are outlined in the Gospel of John
In the 1877 draft of A Writer's Diary, we find an understanding of Christianity that faithfully reproduces its interpretation in Fichte's philosophy: "Christianity is the proof that God may be contained in man
Summary
The article refutes the widespread view that Dostoevsky's Christian beliefs were strictly Orthodox. Leo Tolstoy entered the history of Russian philosophy and social thought because of his original ideas and apparent opposition to the Orthodox Church and historical Christianity.
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