The Image of Christ in Russian Literature: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Pasternak

289 Pages·2018·1.772 MB·English

by  John Givens

THE IMAGE OF CHRIST IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE

THE IMAGE OF CHRIST
IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
D , t , B , P
ostoevsky olstoy ulgakov asternak
JOHN GIVENS
nIu Press / DekalB, Il
Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb 60115
© 2018 by Northern Illinois University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 2 3 4 5
978-0-87580-779-9 (case)
978-1-60909-238-2 (e-book)
Book and cover design by Yuni Dorr
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
For Anna and Will
In memoriam Marian and Calvin Schwenk

C
ontents
aCknowleDgments ix
INTRODUCTION
The Image of Christ and Russian Literature 3
CHAPTER ONE
The Century of Unbelief 16
CHAPTER TWO
Christ outside the Truth 40
CHAPTER THREE
A Narrow Escape into Faith 59
CHAPTER FOUR
Loving Those Who Hate You 83
CHAPTER FIVE
“Can This Be Faith?” 102
CHAPTER SIX
The Century of Belief 124
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Keep in Mind That Jesus Did Exist” 149
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Emphatically Human, Deliberately Provincial” 177
CONCLUSION
Post-Stalin and Postmodern Christs 205
notes 221
BIBlIograPhy 253
InDex 269

a
CknowleDgments
The impetus behind this project emerged from conversations I had with a for-
mer Catholic priest about the relationship between the quest for the histori-
cal Jesus and the Christ of faith in Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, The Master and
Margarita, which I was teaching for the first time in my Soviet literature class.
Though the historical critical method of biblical scholarship and aspects of
Western and Eastern Christology occupied many of our conversations, our dia-
logue began with one of the first questions Woland asks his two atheist interloc-
utors on that park bench at Patriarch’s Ponds: the question about the five proofs
of God. Curiously, neither of the two most recent and well-regarded translations
of the novel had any annotations explaining what these proofs were, though
presumably many readers might not know who authored them or be able to
recall them. My interlocutor could, and without any prompting elaborated on
them at length. That priest was my stepfather, and in listening to him recount
Thomas Aquinas’s Five Ways and in talking with him about what Bulgakov was
up to having the devil not only insist on God’s existence but that of Jesus as well,
I realized I had found an endlessly fascinating subject. Calvin Schwenk, a priest
forever in the line of Melchizedek, is thus this study’s most important inspira-
tion and guiding light, though he did not live to see its completion. I offer this
book in his memory and that of my mother.
I have many other debts to acknowledge, large and small. My colleague, Anna
Maslennikova, formerly of Saint Petersburg State University, carefully read
every page of my manuscript and offered innumerable insights and suggestions
as well as constant support throughout the writing process. Her comments and
those of my anonymous readers were crucial in honing my arguments and sav-
ing me from missteps and I thank them all for their valuable critical interven-
tions. Other important readers of this manuscript include Gary Saul Morson
and Kathleen Parthé, who provided many helpful and insightful comments at
different stages of writing and revision. My book is better for the contributions
of all of these thoughtful commentators, though any mistakes that persist are
strictly my own responsibility.