Orthodox Dostoevsky

Toward the end of his Gogol et Dostoievsky , Paul Evdokimov asks whether Dostoevsky’s views on nature, grace, creation, humanity were consistent with Orthodoxy. He answers with a ringing affirmative, and has some intriguing things to say along the way.

Dostoevsky’s claim that the heavenly brilliance of the spirit of hamn is really revealed in flesh, and that this is perfectly natural to man leads Evdokimov off into a discussion of nature and grace in Orthodoxy. Christ, he points out, is the archetype of humanity: “It is in contemplating Christ that the Father sculpted the human face, as the Incarnation reveals” (c’est en contemplant le Christ, que le Pere a sculpte le visage humain, comme l’Incarnation se revele). Dostoevsky thus shows himself faithful to the Orthodox view of grace and nature; for orthodoxy, grace is not “anti-naturelle, ni surnaturelle, main surnaturellement co-naturelle” – supernaturally connatural. Grace is not some super-human elevation, but rather the very measure and standard of human normality (“L’etat de grace est normatif de l’etre humain”), and this too is Christologically grounded: His graced nature is humanity in its normal state, its natural state which is “naturalisme surnaturel.” As the water became wine at Cana (a scene Dostoevsky repairs to repeatedly), so human being is transmuted into the light of God (“transmutation de l’etre humain en lumiere de Dieu”).

So long as the Creator-creature distinction is preserved, this captures the relation of nature and grace exactly.