Dostoyevsky’s Testimony of Christ

The Russian writers are fabulous. Have you ever read Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime & Punishment? Some say he intended it as a parable—or prophecy—of how idealistic university types would kill freedom and then have to live with the consequences under a Marxist nightmare for an entire lifetime. The idealistic university class is epitomized by student Rodion Raskolnikov and the merchant class by the elderly pawnbroker. Raskolniov eventually convinces himself that he ought to murder the greedy old woman so that he can use her money to finance his education, become a doctor, and serve humanity. It’s a fascinating read.

Doestoyevsky was a devout Christian. In The Prince he wrote,"This world will be saved by beauty." Later he explained that Christ is that beauty. In a letter to a friend he wrote,"If someone could prove to me that Christ was outside the truth, and if, in fact, Christ truly were outside the truth, then I should prefer to remain with Christ and not with the truth."

What a moving attestation to how much Dostoyevsky adored Christ! He was on to something: Our ability to conform our lives to Christ's teachings is somehow interlinked and interwoven with how much we adore him.

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Orem, Utah—5 January 2021—©2021 Daniel Kemper Lubben