the brothers karamazov by fyodor dostoyevsky

Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground – Genesis 4:8-10ĭostoevsky asks why is murder wrong, if there is no God? Today, we fear life in prison for a heinous crime, but what did it matter in parts of lawless Russia? It was a burning question for Russians, as the author foreshadows the calamity of the twentieth century, with the coming bitter empire of the USSR, with its death squads, murder camps and mass killings.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Now Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. ‘If there is no God, everything is permitted,’ is a central argument and in this case, it’s murder. One principle theme concerns the power of Christianity to redeem society and how the lack of faith leads to its destruction. Dostoevsky mines questions of faith from all perspectives, from the cantankerous atheist, the naïve believer, the doubter and the backslider returning to God.

This was the last novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, who died less than four months after its publication and literary authorities acclaim it as one of the supreme achievements in global literature. It’s a complex theological drama, diving into questions of faith, doubt, justice, revenge, repentance and forgiveness, all set in the mystery of which Karamazov killed their father. The Brothers Karamazov is an epic classic Russian novel, set in nineteenth century Russia, concerning the riotous Karamazov family and the murder of their heinous father.

The brothers karamazov by fyodor dostoyevsky