The Grand Inquisitor

If you've never read The Brothers Karamazov, I encourage you to because it's an excellent novel. But it's not something you read for fun -- no Russian novel is a fun read.

Anyway, The Grand Inquisitor is labeled as, perhaps, the greatest chapter in all of literature. Which, is somewhat funny because I think it's the second best chapter in the book (The first being "The Devil. Ivan's Nightmare". A close third is the chapter that precedes The Grand Inquisitor entitled "Rebellion").

For precis of the chapter, I recommend you click on the link. But here's my summary: Set during the Spanish Inquisition and describes the return of Christ to the town of Seville, Spain. There, the day before, 100 "heretics" were burned alive by the presiding cardinal who is called The Grand Inquisitor. Christ, as he walks through the town begins to perform miracles. This leads to his imprisonment and eventual interrogation by this cardinal. The Cardinal, believing He is who He says He is, eventually takes the lines of questioning back to Christ's temptation in the wilderness when Satan tempted Christ three times.

The Grand Inquisitor questions him on the nature of "free will" and comes to the conclusion that it is too much for any human to bear -- except for the elect, the strong -- and Christ was wrong to make it this difficult. He should've, the cardinal points out, turned the stones to bread, for that would've made it easier for humanity to follow him. Instead, the burden and responsibility of free will is too difficult and Christ had too much faith in humanity to leave us with it.

Really, you should read it -- even if you only read the chapter. I was struck by the idea of "the burden of free will". On the iPod this morning was Derek Webb's "New Law" . A song with much the same idea:

Don't teach me about politics and government ;
Just tell me who to vote for.
Don't teach me about truth and beauty;
Just label my music.
Don't teach me how to live like a free man;
Just give me a new law.

So...the burden of free will. Reminds of the scene in Bruce Almighty when Bruce is overcome by the difficulty of his omnipotence and the inability to make people love him (This isn't the actual scene I'm referring to but it carries a similar point).

I've never thought of free will as a burden. But I'm seeing it now...hmmm.