Fyodor Dostoevsky was born and raised in Moscow. Trained as a military draftsman, Dostoevsky chose instead to devote himself to writing. Following some initial success he was arrested in 1849 and exiled to Siberia for his involvement in a secret socialist organization. After nine years of inhuman treatment he was allowed to return to European Russia where he resumed his literary work.
His greatest work, The Brothers Karamazov was published a year before his death. In this work Dostoevky makes clear his distrust of reason and his belief that true religion leads to freedom--and suffering. In the selection given here, Ivan Karamazov (an intellectual atheist who embodies dispassionate reason) is explaining to his brother Alyosha (a novice priest who embodies Christian faith and love) why he refuses to believe in God. Ivan gives several (true) stories of suffering inflicted on children and asks how God could allow such things to happen. He then moves to tell a "story within the story" in which Jesus returns to earth in the 1500's and is taken captive by the Spanish Grand Inquisitor. The Grand Inquisitor tells Jesus that people do not want freedom. Instead what they really want is miracle, mystery, and authority which the Roman Catholic Church has given them. (Click here for "The Grand Inquisitor" from The Brothers Karamazov.)
From Forrest Baird, Human Thought and Action (University Press of America, © 1992)