The Spirituality of the Monk Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov

Abstract

Dostoevsky's last novel, The Brothers Karamazov , is not only an engrossing detective story, but also the culmination of the religious themes of his earlier great novels. It is the ripest expression of Dostoevsky's literary Christianity, with which he strongly identified himself in his letters. The fact that, owing to the author's death, the second part of this novel was never written, remains an inestimable loss to world literature. Besides the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor, The Brothers Karamazov contains other extensive religious passages. The longest of these is The Life and Teachings of the Elder Monk Zosima (Book 6 of the novel). This was designed by Dostoevsky as the answer to the challenge to Christianity by Ivan Karamazov and the Grand Inquisitor in the previous book, but earlier in the novel, four chapters are already devoted to Zosima. Then there are other chapters with religious themes: the discussion on Ivan Karamazov's article on the relationship between church and state, Dmitry Karamazov's outpourings on the divine mystery of beauty, Alyosha Karamazov's vision of the Wedding at Cana, Grushenka's fable on the little onion and the hallucinatory confrontation between Ivan and his sarcastic devil. The Main Religious Characters The monk Zosima is immediately introduced in the first book of the novel and his activities are described in the second. In the latter, religious themes appear that return in the Life and Teaching and continue to sound throughout the entire novel.