Existentialism and Christianity....an extract Copyright Robert Fullarton 2014

Existentialism and Christianity....an extract
Copyright Robert Fullarton 2014

The narrator and the central character of Dostoyevsky’s Dream of a ridiculous man is laughed at and mocked by those around him for his proclamations of loving one’s enemies in the midst of a cynical and predatory society, which is based on instincts for lust, power and wealth. The “ridiculous man” is moved by something greater than himself –outside his own torment for suicide- we have his profound vision of a perfect civilization, uncorrupted and bound in the law and the order of love with an original harmony and order that came hence before socialism, nihilism, anarchism and the brotherhoods and doctrines which Dostoyevsky himself condemned as “demonic”, retrogressive and totally harmful to the frail core of society and its values. Dostoyevsky’s canon of literature can be seen as a defence for structures of belief and meaning, towers of existent truths, that surpass the philosophical mix of man’s centennial change in belief systems. Themes cover redemption and salvation -seen with the transformation of Rashkolnikov the murderer in Crime and punishment- the condemnation of man made ideals in anarchism and nihilism –showing the fundamentally dangerous notions of false utopias- come to bear their nature in a Shakespearian mass murder of the characters in the novel Devils.
What is the standard that the ridiculous man reaches out for or practices? What does he believe, in contrast and opposition to the nature and livelihood of the murderers found in Devils?
The ridiculous man loves his enemies, denies his own self after having an encounter with an impoverished street child and a powerful hallucinogenic vision of a far flung paradise in space and time. The man comes to promulgate the message that has been “preached a billion times before” and that is to love one’s enemies as oneself, he renounces his maddened desire for self-destruction and instead reaches out for something greater than himself…in return he finds joy, like it were the first day in the new creation.