Ivan Karamazov's parable of a churchman who jails the returned Christ, claiming people prefer secure bread to freedom, while himself disbelieving.
In lecture order, as Marci Shore presents each view. The time opens that minute of the lecture on YouTube.
Across Eastern Europe, most pointedly in Czechoslovakia after 1968, Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, whose one secret is unbelief, became the metaphor for a party that no longer believed in communism.
Put simply Shore: across Eastern Europe, especially in Czechoslovakia after 1968, people likened the ruling party to Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, a churchman whose one secret is that he does not believe. The party no longer believed in communism.
In Dostoevsky's parable the Grand Inquisitor tells Jesus that humans find freedom the hardest burden of all, and will lay it down in exchange for guaranteed bread.
The parable's punchline, as Alyosha guesses and Ivan confirms: the Grand Inquisitor, who burns heretics for believing too little, has one secret, his own lack of faith in God.
Put simply The twist in Dostoevsky's parable: the Grand Inquisitor burns heretics for not believing enough, yet his one secret is that he himself does not believe in God.
1 link between claims that both use the term. Each shows the earlier claim, then the later one that answers it. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
DostoevskyThe parable's punchline, as Alyosha guesses and Ivan confirms: the Grand Inquisitor, who burns heretics for believing too little, has one secret, his own lack of faith in God. L23 · 17:34
ShoreAcross Eastern Europe, most pointedly in Czechoslovakia after 1968, Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, whose one secret is unbelief, became the metaphor for a party that no longer believed in communism. L23 · 15:13
Shore reports that Dostoevsky's unbelieving Grand Inquisitor was used across Eastern Europe as the metaphor for the post-1968 Czechoslovak party.