The Dostoevsky’s Problem of Man (an Attempt of Theological Interpretation)

Abstract

The translation of the work of the protestant theologian and thinker, as well as the expert on Russian spiritual culture, who maintained contacts with the leading Russian emigrant philosophers, Fritz Lieb (1892–1970) is offered to readers. Lieb’s article, published in the German-language magazine The Orient und Occident in 1930, is an attempt of theological interpretation of the problem of man in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky. According to Lieb, Dostoevsky’s anthropology is inextricably linked with his theology, and the entity of the Russian writer’s comprehension of the key worldview and ideological contradictions of his epoch can only be understood by referring to his theological views. In the course of his analysis, Lieb often refers to the legacy of contemporary Russian emigrant thought, in particular, to the works of D. Chizhevsky, which examine the problem of duality in the Dostoevsky’s work, as well as the philosophical aspects of the novel The Brothers Karamazov. This article of the Protestant thinker had not previously been translated into Russian and was practically unknown to the domestic readers.