christian@topaz.UUCP (02/09/87)
[The uucp host name is just a guess. The original was g.cs.cmu.edu. If you have trouble responding, feel free to ask me to forward. --clh] I would like to find someone who can explain the The Grand Inquisitor to me. It is a chapter in the Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It can be read without reading the rest of the book and is quite short (around 20 pages). It is an extremely interesting and deep essay on freedom and responsibility along with the evils of the established church and socialism. Although I can't do it justice in a few sentences, the setting is really neat: Christ decides to pay mankind a visit to see how things are going. He returns in Seville, Spain during the Inquisition. The chapter describes his interrogation by the Grand Inquisitor. The interrogation examines the three temptations of christ by Satan as described in the book of Matthew. I've read the chapter about six times very carefully, and I am still not sure that I understand what Dostoevsky is saying or that I agree with what I do understand. If anyone would like to discuss it, send me netmail at CMU.