Saturday, September 6, 2008

A good read

As Dostoevsky stood before a firing squad with rifles aimed at his head, a horseman rode up with orders from Nicholas I to commute his sentence to hard labor. Someone gave him a bible on the way to Siberia which he read in prison. After 10 years in prison he developed Christian convictions and decided to follow Christ. He writes, "If anyone proved to me that Christ was outside the truth... then I would prefer to remain with Christ than with the truth."

In the novel The Idiot, Dostoevsky presents a Christ figure in the form of an epileptic prince. Prince Myshkin runs in upper circles, exposing their hypocrisy and brings goodness and truth to their lives. Dostoevsky understood that Jesus was about love and grace, not laws and rules, and being a good person. This book brings it to life.

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