The Depth of Crime and Punishment

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I took on myself to re-read Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment for Great Lent, and have made far greater speed than I would have thought. (Little or no television and bedtime reading can sometimes take you far.) It is a book I have loved for years – being the first Dostoevsky I ever read as a teenager. I still recommend it frequently as a means of contemplating forgiveness.

Like all of Dostoevsky (on moreso), the novel is a maddeningly psychological story in which we listen repeatedly to the thoughts of a virtual madman who is also a murderer; a drunk; a consumptive; a prostitute; petty officials and a host of others. At the deepest level of the novel, however, is the human heart and its confrontation with the gospel of Christ. For the main character, the confrontation comes in the story of the raising of Lazarus.

The power of the novel, however, lies in the power of redemptive suffering. The young madman is driven to murder by the incessant logic of a modernist train of thought. Trying to force this train of thought on the young prostitute (who is herself the closest thing to a saint in the novel), asking her to choose between whose life she would save in certain situations (typical of the utilitarian logic of some progressivist thought), she reviles him for asking such an impossible question and for blaspheming the Providence of God.

And there lies the redemption in Dostoevsky – to embrace the Providence of God and to accept bravely the consequences of our sin. When the madman confesses his sin to the prostitute, she tells him that he should immediately rush out to a crossroad, bow to the ground and ask the earth’s forgiveness (for the blood he has spilled) and then bow in all four directions and ask forgiveness of everyone (of course to be followed by turning himself over to the authorities). And she promises not to leave him but to share his hard labor. It is the love of God, calling each sinner to the truth of His sin, to the fearful feat of confession, and to the promise of redemption that will not be our own creation but a companionship with One who loves us.

I treasure Dostoevsky’s writings because they are so profoundly Christian. Not simply that they are permeated with 19th century Russia which seems to have encapsulated the struggle of the modern world, but that it is also permeated with a profound grasp of the Christian faith at its most basic level.

Forgiveness, confession, repentance, and the embracing of voluntary suffering – simply the way of the Cross – is never put so clearly in any other novel of our modern world. I am a priest and I thus carry a responsibility for souls. I have learned over the years that we all have some level of the madman about us – even some level of the prostitute (although her prostitution is actually a means of self-sacrifice). We have a mad complexity about our heart that drives us all to strange behaviors – or at least behaviors we would not want broadcast to the world (some broadcast them anyway – such is our lack of shame). But in Dostoevsky I am reminded of the truth of God and the power of that truth in the human heart. As confused as we may be – saints still rise among us and often in unexpected places.

What should not be unexpected is that in every place – the mercy of God abounds. Everyone can be saved and that part of the Gospel of Christ must remain essential for us all.

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a retired Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America. He is also author of Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, and Face to Face: Knowing God Beyond Our Shame, as well as the Glory to God podcast series on Ancient Faith Radio.



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9 responses to “The Depth of Crime and Punishment”

  1. neil Avatar
    neil

    You had a specific translator in mind for The Brothers K. Do you recommend for this novel, as well?

  2. Fatherstephen Avatar
    Fatherstephen

    Indeed,

    The translation by Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky – simply cannot be matched.

  3. Catherine K. Avatar

    I heartedly agree, Dostoyevsky is my favorite – and the translator truly matters.

    Right now I am trying to decide whether to reread Crime and Punishment, Brothers K., or the Idiot…. there are also others that are less well known of his novels that are quite good, such as Demons (also known as the Possessed) but those first three really are his best.

  4. Dana Ames Avatar
    Dana Ames

    Rowan Williams has written a book on Dostoyevsky; Tom Wright has read the MS and is quite enthused about it. Sounds intriguing to me.

    Appreciate your translation recommendations.

  5. Mimi Avatar

    Father, bless,

    I’ve not read P&V’s Brothers K, but I hear it is the best. I remember Crime and Punishment as being a very quick read. And, powerful.

  6. Ioannis Freeman Avatar
    Ioannis Freeman

    Thank you, Father Stephen, and may Christ be praised in these early days of Great Lent.

    I have been listening to an audio-book edition of C&P between patient appointments at one of the federal prisons where I serve Christ. In addition, I have been better able to appreciate the magnitude of Augustine’s debauchery in the “Confessions,” by comparison with C&P, as well as mine own depravity through the lens of C&P.

    Nevertheless, C&P does leave it to diagnosis of sin alone–for that would lead to despair. Rather, it narrates acts of faith in Christ’s redemption during harrowing shadows of life. C&P keeps awakening praise for God, who leads me to see my sin, and emboldening faith that God first began in my baptism.

    Also helpful to me has been a recent reading of Father Seraphim Rose’s (title) “The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church” (Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, P.O Box 70, Platina, CA. 96076; pub. dates: 1983 and 1996). As you say, C&P leads us to “…the truth of God and the power of that truth in the human heart.” Seraphim Rose’s considered view of Augustine also puts similar encouragement in me to persevere toward salvation.

  7. […] book to read for Lent. I was thinking of reading (at least) one. The old marriage jingle came to mind, “something […]

  8. […] For a more scholarly blog on this book from an apparently learned (and most likely much better) Christian, you can check out https://glory2godforallthings.com/2008/03/13/the-depth-of-crime-and-punishment/ […]

  9. stevemcgill Avatar
    stevemcgill

    Hope you don’t mind, but I referenced your notes here on my post on C&P today. I thought an actual reader probably had insight a listener might have missed 🙂

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