What Dostoevsky Can Teach Us About the Suffering Church
Feodor Dostoevsky is the author of one of the most profound dialogues about sin and evil in his book The Brothers Karamazov that reflected on his unrest over injustice. Reading the book, one begins to understand that it was not God, who Dostoevsky had a problem with, but evil and disingenuous Christians. Elissa Kiskaddon claims that Dostoevsky’s disappointment with God was not only “confined to religious persons, but extended to the entity of the church itself and its excesses.” Walter Wink ’ s concern is that the condition of the Church is far from ideal. “These churches are riven by strife, factionalism, backbiting, and heresy. As human communities, they have little to commend them." [1] The recent resignation of Bishop Robert William Finn in Kansas City after he was convicted of failing to report child abuse in his Diocese left many Kansas City-area Catholics to feel betrayed. Susie Evans, a lifelong Catholic, s...