One of the most famous passages in modern literature is Fyodor Dostoevsky's “The Grand Inquisitor”, a poem within his epic 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov. It is recited by Ivan Karamazov, an intellectual atheist, and it represents what Dostoyevsky views as the greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and the principal object of lament in Daniel J Mahoney's Idol of Our Age: materialism.
“The Grand Inquisitor” begins with Jesus Christ returning to Inquisition-era Spain. He is inconspicuous, but everyone recognises him at once. Christ heals a blind man and raises a young girl from the dead. Then the Grand Inquisitor arrives. He instructs his guards to seize them. Christ is imprisoned and condemned to be burned to death the next day. But before that, the Grand Inquisitor visits him in his cell to interrogate him.
Read Full Article »