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IntroductionThis book of excerpts from the writing of Dostoyevskybegins, very rightly, with “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor,”from The Brothers Karamazov. This is the high point of the storieshe incorporates into his novels and essays. They are similar to theparables told by Jesus. They provide the reader with a practicalillustration of a universal truth that can be described in no otherway. “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” is a superb parable ofhuman existence. It raises the great, or cursed, questions so characteristicof Dostoyevsky’s passion for the living gospel. Only inthe light of the gospel is the complexity of human existence madeunderstandable, purposeful, and hopeful. Without it there is nomeaning to the daily round of human life.One might expect the Legend to be narrated by a believer. It isnot. It is a prose poem composed by Ivan, the Karamazov brotherwho is the rationalist and the man of “the Euclidean mind.” He,like the believer, is passionately involved in the gospel but interms of its rejection, because it does not conform to his logic orhis demand for “justice.” He cannot understand why the worldis arranged as it is. The only logical thing left for him to do is toreturn his ticket to existence. But to whom is he to return it? “Andso I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honestman, I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that Iam doing. It’s not God that I don’t accept, Alyosha, only I mostrespectfully return him the ticket.” Thus the idea of God is essentialeven for someone who is trying passionately to deny him.xiii