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Legend of the Grand Inquisitor’ Reconsidered Literary Irony and Theological Seriousness in Its Representation of Christ

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Legend of the Grand Inquisitor’ Reconsidered Literary Irony and Theological Seriousness in Its Representation of Christ Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 59(1-2), 103-121. doi: 10.2143/JECS.59.1.2023429 T©HE 2007 ‘LEGEND by Journal OF THE of EasternGRAND Christian INQUISITOR Studies.’ RECONSIDERED All rights reserved. 103 THE ‘LEGEND OF THE GRAND INQUISITOR’ RECONSIDERED LITERARY IRONY AND THEOLOGICAL SERIOUSNESS IN ITS REPRESENTATION OF CHRIST WIL VAN DEN BERCKEN* The chapter ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ in Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov is one of the most intriguing religious-philosophical pieces in lit- erature. It is an original interpretation of the figure of Christ and of the na- ture of Christian belief. The story has been commented on by many inter- preters but was more often used as an argument for or against a certain ec- clesiastical theological standpoint, rather than appreciated as an autono- mous piece of literature. In order to make a sound theological evaluation, however, one must first approach the story within its own literary frame- work. What literary means does Dostoevsky use to convey his view of Christ and Christianity? Before analysing the theological content of the story, I would like to treat three aspects of literary style in ‘The Grand Inquisi- tor’1: irony in the presentation of the story, the anti-iconographical picture of Christ and the indirect method of presenting his message. IRONY First a word on the general structure of the story of ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ itself. It is a story within the larger story of the novel and is not part of the plot. As regards content, it is linked to the discussion between the brothers, Ivan and Aleksei, on the suffering in the world, described in the previous chapter. In intention, but not in structure, it is linked to the life and teach- * Wil van den Bercken is slavist and professor extraordinarius of Russian Church history at Radboud University Nijmegen. This article is based on a paper presented at the confer- ence “Dostoevsky and Religion” in Barcelona, Sept. 7, 2006. The text will also be pub- lished in the proceedings of this conference, organized by the International Dostoevsky Society. 1 ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ with inverted commas refers to the story, without inverted com- mas to the person of the Grand Inquisitor. 0397-07_JECS07_05_VDBercken103 23/10/07, 11:36 am 104 WIL VAN DEN BERCKEN ing of the monk, Zosima (Book 6, chs. II, III): according to Dostoevsky’s notes, Zosima’s teaching is meant to be the answer to questions left unan- swered in the discussion between the brothers Ivan and Aleksei, including ‘The Grand Inquisitor’, but there is no logical transition. Structurally – and stylistically, as a variant of the vita-genre – the story of Zosima is also inde- pendent. In the rest of the novel, ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ is only mentioned once, hundreds of pages further on, in a sarcastic reference by the devil in Ivan’s hallucination (Book 11, ch. IX). In spite of this structural independence from the plot, the poem is fundamental to Ivan’s intellectual character and forms the core of his spiritual drama, and it is an intellectual high point of the entire novel. Using Ivan Karamazov as the spiritual father of the poem, the novel writer, Dostoevsky, has created a certain distance from its contents. And Ivan Karamazov himself keeps a certain distance by putting his thoughts into an ‘invented’ story and not writing it down. This distance is enlarged by presenting his invention light-heartedly and with self-mockery. Thus there is a multiple distance between the person of Dostoevsky and his Grand Inquisitor. Ivan Karamazov introduces his story as a ‘poem’. With this swollen term he expresses a subtle irony and he immediately warns his brother not to laugh. Laughing himself, he immediately says that he did not write it, but ‘made it up’ and remembered it. And, again laughingly, he asks if he may tell the ‘silly story’ (veshch’ nelepaya). But then he remembers with a self- mockery laugh that he needs a ‘literary preface’. ‘Laugh’ has already appeared four times as Ivan finally begins his ‘little poem’ (poemka). The irony is clear: first using the name of a classical genre and then calling it a silly story, giving it a quasi-literary preface, accompa- nied by a repeated laugh of self-mockery. During the telling itself, Ivan laughs or mocks another seven times and Alyosha also smiles now and then: this creates a somewhat frivolous atmosphere around this very serious argu- ment. However, the laugh also acts as a sort of intermezzo, a break in the long story, and is coupled to a question from Alyosha and interjections from Ivan. At the end, Ivan again puts his whole story into perspective: ‘After all, it is all nonsense (vzdor), Alyosha, it is only a confused (bestolkovaya) poem by a confused student who has never put two lines of verse together. Why do you take it so seriously?’ 0397-07_JECS07_05_VDBercken104 23/10/07, 11:36 am THE ‘LEGEND OF THE GRAND INQUISITOR’ RECONSIDERED 105 This sets a tone that contrasts with the content of the piece, but this is a well-known trick of Dostoevsky’s: the more serious his ideas, the more the presentation is put into perspective, relativised. In other novels, it is drunks, mentally disturbed or socially ostracised persons who transmit serious ideas. Ivan is not someone from the social fringe, he is a gentleman and an intel- lectual, but relativises himself through mockery. One could call the presen- tation of ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ theology with irony. There is yet a deeper form of irony in the structure of the poem itself, namely in the role of the Grand Inquisitor, who, as Jesus’s opponent, turns out to be the interpreter of His message, but more of that later. First a remark on the outer appear- ance of Jesus. ANTI-ICONOGRAPHY In the poem, after a sketch of a ‘brilliant auto-da-fé … ad majorem gloriam Dei’, suddenly ‘He’ appears. Here a nameless and speechless somebody is introduced, the beginning of an absurd play. Nowhere in the piece is Jesus mentioned by name, always by ‘He’, ‘Him’, ‘His’. But the people recognise Him: ‘That is He, that is He Himself’, ‘It must be He, no-one but He’ and, when the dead girl’s mother turns to Jesus, she does so with the words: ‘If it is You …’. And the first words with which the Grand Inquisitor turns to Jesus are: ‘Is it You? You?’. Only at the end of the chapter will the name Je- sus be mentioned, not by Ivan but by Alyosha. Only in the short episode before the meeting with the Grand Inquisitor does Dostoevsky have Jesus act: He reaches out to the people surrounding Him and ‘softly’ says two Aramaic words to the dead girl, ‘Talitha cumi – maiden, arise’, a literal quotation from Mark 5,41. Dostoevsky describes Jesus as having several spiritual characteristics, vis- ible in His appearance: He appears ‘in His immeasurable compassion’, ‘from infinite mercy’, walks ‘quietly and imperceptibly’, has a ‘quiet smile of end- less pity’, looks ‘with pity’. And the people recognise Him: there is mutual contact. But after the appearance of the cardinal, the Grand Inquisitor, the people immediately disappear and from now Jesus plays a passive role, the Grand Inquisitor dominating the stage to the end. The figure of Jesus stands motionless opposite the continuously orating cardinal. Besides being speechless and nameless, Jesus also has no real face, since Dostoevsky gives no description of the physical appearance of Jesus, 0397-07_JECS07_05_VDBercken105 23/10/07, 11:36 am 106 WIL VAN DEN BERCKEN while drawing the physiognomy of the ninety-year-old inquisitor in detail. Two opposing figures without any action or real discussion: a static context for an explosive religious-anthropological argument. As a stage piece, ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ derives its drama from the monologue, not the action. Only at the very last moment does Jesus break through His passivity with a surprising gesture: He kisses the old prelate on his bloodless lips. After Jesus’ long immobility up to then, this short gesture takes on great meaning. A gesture that says more than words and takes the Cardinal completely by sur- prise, having just ended his monologue with the words, ‘Tomorrow I shall have you burnt. Dixi!’ And this resolute Latin word again adds a touch of irony. Seen from Orthodox iconography, the portrait of Jesus that emerges from ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ is unconventional. It is in every way the opposite of Christ Pantocrator or the throned Christ of the Day of Judgement. Instead we have here a compassionate Jesus among the people and then a submis- sive, silent prisoner in front of a human judge. Neither is this Jesus the glo- rified Christ of the transfiguration, nor the resurrected Christ of the Easter icons but the earthly Jesus. It is therefore characteristic that when Jesus is mentioned by name at the end of the story, it is not with the name ‘Christ’. Dostoevsky breaks through the canonised picture of the Christ of Ortho- dox iconography; his figure of Jesus is nearer to the people and is more vul- nerable than the divine judge. It is not the Christ of dogma and cult, but the kenotic Christ, come down to earth anew. This is indicated by Ivan himself with a quote from Tyutchev in which ‘the heavenly king, in the form of a slave,’ walks the earth.2 This quote becomes a motif-quote, al- though the location is changed from Russia to Spain. The ‘kenotic Christ’ is not unknown in Orthodoxy but it is more typical for Catholic theology and spirituality.
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