Sinful Saints and Saintly Sinners Paradigms for Holiness and the Priority of Being in the Dostoyevskyad

Abstract

The writings of Fyodor Dostoyevsky represent a passionate struggle to display Christian holiness. As an icon in the Orthodox tradition communicates something of the beauty of the Christ, so too are each of Dostoyevsky’s characters an icon, a sacred receptacle by which the grace of God might be displayed. No figure is immune from such a representation, indeed, often it is those who are most sinful and depraved through whom God’s grace shines brightest in the Dostoyevskyad, and merely those who are indifferent to such a grace that repel it. Holiness, for Dostoyevsky, relates to being and intentionality. Those who relate to being with a passionate intensity and commitment, are those who know God, whereas those who are completely indifferent to being, are merely stooges of the devil.