Dostoevsky and the Icon: Faith beyond Reason

Andrea Serra

2021-01-01

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Abstract

Can Dostoevsky’s thought be defined as “iconological”? I will try to propose this interpretation. More specifically, the article intends to investigate the boundaries between faith and reason, as they appear in the author’s speculation. The purpose is not only to show the limits of reason before the mystery of faith, but also to underline how Dostoevsky’s vision—his way of grasping reality—can be comparable to the way the faithful look at the icon. The iconological thought that invests every single part of the world is applied by the author even to Western art. Raphael, Holbein, Lorrain are interpreted from an Eastern perspective. Eastern faith and mystery are the extremes of the positive pole. Subjugation to reason and science, of Western origin, represent the extremes of of the opposite side: the negative one. A new "golden age", that of orthodoxy and iconological thought, according to Dostoevsky, would appear in Russia, realizing true fraternal union in the love of Christ.