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1 5 8 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 2just as he does not have an objection to pious fraud in general, neither wouldMachiavelli have any particular objection to the Inquisitor’s pious fraud ifthe Inquisitor’s thesis concerning the crisis of modernity is proved to be correct.From this point of view, one should not forget that the religion of theGrand Inquisitor is a therapeutic religion directed at making man happy inthis world, “allowing [him]…even sin, but with our permission,” and “luringhim with a heavenly and eternal reward,” although “beyond the tomb” he“will find only death.” 162 It is important to stress here that, whereas for Straussthe original motive of modern Enlightenment is essentially Epicurean, forEpicurus it is not absolutely necessary to liberate men from the fear of gods,and from their repressive moral authority, through a science that leads toatheism. A therapeutic religion 163 whose gods are indifferent or even benevolentcan also do the job, 164 and, as the Grand Inquisitor claims, it can do itmuch better.Finally, whereas Machiavelli’s atheism is joyful and hedonistic, which iswhy it can become popular, the Inquisitor’s atheism, belonging to a differenthistorical moment, is terrifying and fit only for the minority that cancontemplate the bloodcurdling truth about the human condition. Accordingto Strauss, the ultimate motivation behind Machiavelli’s project is notpatriotism but simply “self-interest…respectfully colored” as patriotism. 165The Grand Inquisitor, on the other hand, claims that he has taken upon himself“the curse” (i.e., the cross) of the secret “knowledge of good and evil,” 166owing to an enormous compassion for mankind, which is superior to that ofChrist, and which therefore justifies his usurpation of God’s authority. Butfrom Dostoyevsky’s Christian perspective, the secret of this compassion is162Ibid., 335–38.163Therapeutic religion not in the sense described by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, namely “thehealing of a person’s passions,” in particular “the three great general passions, self-indulgence, loveof glory, and…love of possessions, to which the temptations of Christ refer,” this healing being theprerequisite for “attaining communion and union with God” (Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos,Orthodox Psychotherapy, trans. Esther Williams [Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1994], 27, 222).Rather, therapeutic religion in the sense described by Philip Rieff: a “remissive…religiosity…withnothing at stake beyond a manipulatable sense of well-being,” in which “the psychotherapist” becomesthe new “secular spiritual guide.” According to Rieff, as this “new religiosity” progressively replacesthe old modes of behavior and institutions of Western civilization, “the churchmen” are more andmore pressured by circumstances to adapt and “become…therapists, administrating a therapeuticinstitution—under the justificatory mandate that Jesus himself was the first therapeutic” (Philip Rieff,The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987],13, 20, 25, 251).164Tanguay, Leo Strauss, 39.165Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli, 80.166Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov, 338.