Dostoevsky: A Theological Engagement

By P. H. Brazier and P.H. Brazier

Book Overview

As a writer and prophet Dostoevsky was no academic theologian, yet his writings are deeply theological: his life, beliefs, even his epilepsy, all had a role in generating histheology and eschatology. Dostoevsky's novels are riven with paradoxes, aredeeply dialectical, and represent a criticism of religion, offered in the service of the gospel. In this task he presented a profound understanding and portrait of humanity. Dostoevsky's novels chart the movement of the human into death: either the movement through paradox and Christlikeness into Christ's cross (a soteriology often characterized by the apophatic negation and self-denial; what we may term 'the Mark of Abel') leading to salvation and resurrection; or, conversely, the movement of those who refuse Christ's invitation to be redeemed, and continue to fall into a self-willed death and a selfgenerated hell ('the Mark of Cain'). This eschatology becomes a theological axiom which he unceasingly warned people of in his mature works. Startlingly original, stripped of all religious pretence, Dostoevsky as a prophet forewarned of the politicized humanistic delusions of the twentieth century: a prophet crying out through the wilderness.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0718895363
• ISBN13: 9780718895365
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: Lutterworth Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"