Grand Inquisitors

In the classic novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879), Fyodor Dostoyevsky recounts the terrifying parable of the ‘Grand Inquisitor’. Christ returns, arriving in Spain, and is taken by the religious authorities before the head of the Inquisition where he is condemned for preaching a gospel of freedom, responsibility and conscience.

This is not, says the Grand Inquisitor, what the masses need. They cannot handle freedom. Give them bread, given them magic and miracles, give them discipline and order. By rejecting the temptations of Satan, Christ brought ordinary people unbearable duties. By accepting these temptations the Church has freed people from the burden Christ laid upon them. Christ is commanded to depart and not to return under pain of death…

Partly propaganda influenced by the declaration of papal infallibility (1870), this story is also considered to be Dostoyevsky’s insightful anticipation of the kinds of totalitarian regimes that would dominate much of the 20th century, including his own country, Russia. A revolution that was supposed to end tyranny and bring freedom was hijacked by a ruthless elite who eliminated first its opponents and then its own members who held creative and dissenting views from the party orthodoxy. This process has occurred on numerous other occasions, even in democracies, where dominant parties and groups have marginalized and expelled dissidents in the name of ‘unity’ and discipline.

It is also an accurate and uncomfortable vision of religious fanaticism. We see it in radical Islamist movements, Islamic states, fundamentalist Christianity and in religions where uniformity and blind obedience is rewarded and independent thought punished. Determination to maintain religious orthodoxy (as defined by the elites that run these religions) at all costs sometimes means that the spiritual and pastoral needs of members are overlooked. Popular pieties are introduced to reinforce conformity and dependency on the religious elites.

Political philosopher and theologian Nicholas Berdyaev notes:
To devote oneself without reservation to God or to an idea, substituting for God, whilst ignoring man [sic], is to transform a man into a means and a weapon for the glory of God or for the realisation of the idea, and it means to become a fanatic – wild-eyed and even a monster.
In this insight we see the roots of all inquisitions, witch hunts and persecution of difference – whether religious or political. The ideology becomes more important than people; people become the servants of the institutions that control the ideology and any critical voices are silenced. Explicitly or implicitly, people are encouraged to leave their minds at the doors of synagogues, mosques, churches and political meetings.

Of course this does not have to be so. As the prophets of old, as Jesus and the disciples, as many good people have done down the centuries, we can challenge the status quo. Institutions and groups are only as strong as the consent we give them. We can call leaders to account. We can proclaim Christ’s gospel of freedom in our society, in our many associations, parties and organisations. We can tell the Grand Inquisitor in his many forms where to go.

Or are we happy with bread, magic and order?