1G0xxeB

Strauss’s Machiavelli and Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor1 5 3the Inquisitor criticizes the unarmed prophet’s fatal lack of realism, thus justifyinghis decision to take up arms in Christ’s name in order to complete theGod-man’s work through the only means through which it can be completed:violence, the attribute of the lion, and deceit, the attribute of the fox. RejectingGod’s offer of salvation, the man-god/beast-man decides to redeem throughhis own powers the defective world created by God, which the son of God hasproved unable to redeem. On the contrary, it is not only God’s incompetenceor malevolence as creator, but also his lack of realism as redeemer, that hasgenerated all the trouble that the Grand Inquisitor now has to fix, infinitelyincreasing the additional suffering through which mankind has to pass, untilthe Grand Inquisitor will finally manage to impose his theologico-politicalformula upon the world. From this point of view, the modern project of apurely horizontal redemption presupposes a radical critique of Christianity’s“utopianism,” a critique of the same kind as that attributed by Straussto Machiavelli. Like Machiavelli, the Grand Inquisitor reproaches Christ forhaving ignored the limits of human nature, and consequently raising moralstandards too high. According to the Inquisitor, the God-man has calledhumanity to a way of life that is fit only for the tens of thousands of Christianathletes, not for the billions of “miserable creatures” who are not “to blamefor not having” the strength “to bear the same things as the mighty.” 146 Asa result, rather than being relieved, the misery of the “miserable creatures”has been greatly increased. By “respecting” man “less,” the Grand Inquisitorcontinues, Christ “would have demanded of him less, and that would havebeen closer to love, for his burden would have been lighter.” 147 It is in thename of this compassion, the basis of which is a realistic disdain for man, thatthe Grand Inquisitor sets for himself the task of “correcting” Christ’s “greatdeed,” 148 that is, of “lowering the standards” of spiritual and consequently ofsocial life. The purpose of this revolution, which structurally reproduces theMachiavellian revolution as viewed by Strauss, is to provide, in this world,the only existing one, a degrading, “quiet, reconciled happiness” to “the thousandsupon millions” of “feeble creatures” who are not worthy or capable of asuperior kind of happiness. 149The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor is organized around the three temptationsto which Jesus was exposed in the wilderness, temptations that in146Ibid., 331, 334–35.147Ibid., 334.148Ibid., 339.149Ibid., 337–38.