RE: CHRISTIANS, DOSTOEVSKY OR AUSTEN:
Camille's comments in the post below the one below are quite good. There's a lot to be said for the importance of hope and future happiness, especially as elements of theology; and what looks to less charitable eyes to be everyone's-basically-alright can become a fine model of what sanctification looks like in a life, as those longstanding weaknesses and shortcomings give way with the help of age, maturity, and the community that surrounds you. I still, in the end, think Dostoevsky superior as a Christian novelist (he pushes a little bit further toward the uncomfortable center of things, and himself has some worthwhile figures of this-worldly redemption and the positive effect of community (Sonya and Dunya in Crime and Punishment, Alexei to the children in The Brothers Karamazov), but they are both worthwhile reading (for what can be gained from them ethically, and just for the sheer joy of reading them). I prefer Dostoevsky, though I'm not sure I would want to live in a world where there was no Austen to counterbalance him (and I think the reverse is true); fortunately, I'll never have to find that out.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
No comments:
Post a Comment