A study and analysis of the concept of religious experience in the works of Theodore Dostoevsky With an approach to the novels "Crime and Punishment" and "Karamazov Brothers"

Subject Areas : Comparative Literature Studies

azade hoseiniy ¹ , ARASTOO MIRANI ² , mohammadali mir ³

1 - Department of Theology and Islamic Studies, Orientation of Religions and Comparative Mysticism, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan Branch, Gorgan, Iran.
2 - Department of Theology and Islamic Studies, Orientation of Religions and Comparative Mysticism, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan Branch, Gorgan, Iran.
3 - Department of Theology and Islamic Studies, Orientation of Religions and Comparative Mysticism, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan Branch, Gorgan, Iran.

Received: 2021-06-11 Accepted : 2021-06-11 Published : 2021-05-22

Keywords: Religious Experience, interpretation, Orthodox Christianity, Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Karamazov Brothers,

Abstract :

In his works, Dostoevsky reflects on his religious experiences and describes most of his doctrinal and ideological views in them. Thus, the subjects the author deals with, as well as the characters he creates, are all used to explain his religious beliefs. Religious experience comes in many forms, but a look at the novels Crime and Punishment and The Karamazov Brothers shows that Dostoevsky was only interested in its interpretive nature. His interpretive experience was created by two external factors (invitation to Christianity by his grandfather and monks) and internal (solitude with himself in prison in his youth). He first learned this interpretive experience in an imitative and traditional way, but later demonstrated it in the form of representations of critical and challenging ideas. He visibly recognized the shortcomings of the church as the main institution of religion in Russia, and based on his interpretive experience, addressed them in the language of a figure named Pavlovich. Dostoevsky's goal was not destructive and stemming from psychological entanglements, but to justify such criticisms in order to improve the beliefs and religious conditions of the people. This article has been compiled with reference to library sources and descriptive-analytical method and it deals with the basic issue of how Dostoevsky's religious experiences evolved in the mentioned novels. The main question of the research is what is the most important religious experience of Dostoevsky in these two novels?