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1 4 4 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 2the Roman Empire, 109 and will again become the cornerstone of the CatholicMiddle Ages and finally of the modern West. According to Dostoyevsky, theman-god was challenged at the peak of antiquity by God’s descent on earth,or by the incarnation of God as Christ, the God-man. Unlike the man-god,who sought to forcefully unify mankind into a universal “ant-heap,” 110 theGod-man, respecting man’s freedom, preached the unification of mankindthrough brotherly love. Not supported by the force of arms, his preachinghas led to his crucifixion, but his invisible authority continued to be exercisedover the church, the community of repentant sinners who believed inhis resurrection and pursued his ideal while waiting for his return.As revealed by a discussion that takes place in the beginning of the novelThe Brothers Karamazov, the conversion to Christianity of the Roman Empiredid not put an end to the conflict between the principle of the pagan stateand the principle of the Christian church. In Dostoyevsky’s view, integrated,as a consequence of Constantine’s conversion, into the Roman State, whichstill contained “too many vestiges of pagan civilization” and, furthermore,remained pagan through its “very goals and principles” as State, “the Churchof Christ could not…surrender any of its own fundamental principles…andcould not but pursue the very goals that once had been firmly set and prescribedfor it by the Lord Himself, including the goal of converting the entireworld, and thereby the whole of the Ancient State.” 111 This conversion is aconversion from within. It presupposes the transformation of all social relationsbased on power into social relations based on brotherly love. The meansto arrive at this goal are exclusively Christian preaching rendered effectiveby the concrete and personal witnessing through “active love,” 112 to whichall are called, as they are called to repentance in the awareness that all areresponsible for all. According to Dostoyevsky, this theologico-political project,which has been preserved by the Orthodox Church ever since the days ofthe Byzantine Empire but not yet accomplished, is completely different fromthe one which has been adopted by the Roman Catholic Church after theseparation of the Eastern and the Western churches. Reactivating practicallythe Roman Imperial idea, the medieval papacy sought to force its authorityupon states. Furthermore, the church itself transformed itself into a state,109Bruce K. Ward, Dostoyevsky’s Critique of the West: The Quest for the Earthly Paradise (Waterloo,ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1986), 167.110Ibid., 336.111Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov, 85.112Ibid., 80.