Nihilism and freedom in the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor

摘要

AbstractThe purpose of this essay is to analyze the roots of nihilism as the great Russian writer has identified and described them in The Grand Inquisitor. In this story, Dostoyevsky captures the tension between the modern person’s spirit of rebellion and his or her infinite desire for God, a desire that is often expressed in compassion for the suffering of the innocent. As I hope to show, the response that Dostoyevsky offers to the problem of evil is still valid: only love can transform evil into a means of purifying the soul as well as of redemption.