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AfterwordExtracts from the editor of the German editionKarl NötzelLike Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky was a religious church member asa child, but already as a young man he turned to the progressivebeliefs of Russian intellectuals of the time. Later he gained a deepinsight into the horrors of human misery and called God himselfinto question, the God who allowed it all.In his last great masterpieces Dostoyevsky shows the woundedsoul the way to healing: not to retaliate. Such a person is therebyimmediately immune to attack – to the helpless amazement of all,and is most clearly portrayed in the character of Prince Myshkinin The Idiot. So he passes beyond revenge. By doing so he is nowable to see all of the reality that is not God, in a relationship toGod that will never be lost.In Dostoyevsky, the search for the meaning of life turns intothe question of faith in God – not of God’s existence. For knowledgeof God is simply inescapable. And faith in God really meansonly acknowledging him. For if God is God, the spiritual originof all that is, there is an absolute chasm between God and man.This is the meaning of “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor,”which is Dostoyevsky’s statement of his deepest religious faith.The true content and context of Dostoyevsky’s great works isman’s struggle to find God, in the face of every imaginable temptationto deny him. But man is shown the way to God throughthe man Christ alone. Through Christ God speaks to us.237