Merry Christmas from Well Read Christian! In case of emergency, Mark Stanley had prepared a blooper reel to run so that you wouldn’t feel the cold emptiness of an episode-less Thursday morning. Instead, we decided a holiday was emergency enough. Please enjoy, and we will see you next week!
Debating an atheist about evil is one thing, but how could we respond at the bedside of a dying child in the house of a desperate family? Dostoyevsky’s own son died at three years old, and interweaved in his Magnum Opus is a profound reflection on the result of tragedy––and how to keep tragedy from unraveling everything you care about.
Often in literature, Ahab is viewed as a manic, almost inhuman character, so far gone to his revenge that he is not even recognizable anymore. However, I would argue that we can all have Ahab in us from time to time. Not only can we get obsessive about things, but we tend to place all our hopes and dreams onto things that can’t make all our problems go away. But the more steady your ship is, the easier it will be to sail through turbulent waters.
The problem of evil is one of the most cited arguments against Christianity and the existence of God in the modern age. Dostoyevsky’s brilliance articulated a potent blistering assault on the existence of God through Ivan Karamazov, a character who is as brilliant as he is passionate. The sentiment, “God does not exist––and I hate him!” could summarize his views, and the views of many atheists. But is atheism really better equipped to deal with the cruel realities life gives us? Is a tragic optimism, or even a deep insurmountable joy despite the tears, an unjustifiable position? It seems that despite the rage against God, atheism is not an intellectually consistent nor emotionally satisfying answer to the problem of evil.
Within The Brothers Karamazov is a chapter so powerful, vivid, and shocking that it has since impacted the course of Western Civilization. The Grand Inquisitor declares that Jesus Christ has actually acted cruelly towards man for giving him free will, when he knows so many are too weak to follow Christ. Is that true? Does God expect too much from mere mortals? Are his rules, precepts and teachings simply too hard? Or are Christ’s commandments actually the gateway to a relationship with God? Perhaps even the road to virtue, even the destination of peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control is about the journey rather than the destination.
Dostoyevsky says that self-deceit will lead to ruin. Peterson adds that virtue will strengthen you against despair when suffering strikes. Jesus has something even more profound to say about how the truth sets you free.