![]() ![]() Gerrit van Honthorst, “Childhood of Christ”. The “Grand Inquisitor” poem, then, goes beyond an anti-Catholic tirade and “is an unveiling of Ivan’s soul and of his relations with God” (Guardini 62). In response to his brother Alyosha’s proposition of Jesus Christ crucified as the answer to Ivan’s “pessimistic and anarchistic conception of the world” (Guardini 65) (which the latter seeks to corroborate especially with so many stories of grievous suffering of children - see Dostoevsky 208-213), an understanding of Christ emerges from Ivan which is envisioned in such a way that is ultimately unrecognizable in light of the New Testament and excuses Ivan in his attitude toward reality (Guardini 64-65). Romano Guardini argues that, in order to do justice to the artist, one must seek to understand this section of the novel, albeit partly a “sacrilegious caricature” and “certainly an attack against Rome” (62), within the work as a whole and especially the character of Ivan (61-62). ![]() Ivan Fyodorovitch Karamazov’s poem of the “Grand Inquisitor” in Book 5, Chapter 5 of “The Brothers Karamazov” has been interpreted by many authors as a condemnation on the part of Dostoevsky of the Roman Catholic Church, which he considered the Antichrist (Guardini 61). ![]()
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