literature

Requirement: Each question submission should be about one typed page, or around 250 words. 

You may find that you need to write a little more than this, but it will be rare for you to be able to 

write an acceptable essay in fewer than 250 of your own words (besides what you qoute from the 

text). Please use quotations from the text you are writing about to support your points. Write 

clearly, grammatically, and in the form of a structured essay. You will submit the questions on 

the web, through our Compass website. They will be graded as fully acceptable (100%) or 

unacceptable. As to the content of the essay, I am not looking for an exhaustive treatment of the 

question, just a clear proof that you have read, understood, and thought critically about the 

material. Because you will receive 100% for an acceptable essay, I hold you to a high standard 

for getting that credit. The essay must be well-written and thoughtful.

Dostoyevski in the Grand Inquisitor passage from his novel, The Brothers Karamazov, raises the 

question, What would happen today if Jesus Christ came back in the same form that he is 

believed to once before have come to humanity? Would people try to arrest him and put him to 

death? Why? In this story, we are told that there is a leader of the Christian Church, the Grand 

Inquisitor, who has decided to keep people in ignorance of the true teachings of Jesus. He has 

decided to keep people in ignorance for their own good. He believes that the true teaching of 

Jesus does not make people happy. In class we talked about the way Kierkegaard said that people 

need to become "single individuals" and take responsibility to become irreplaceable. That means, 

Kierkegaard thought, taking responsibility to be willing to die with Jesus on the cross. This is not 

a recipe for happiness. So, the Grand Inquisitor wants people to be happy. In your own words, 

explain why the Grand Inquisitor, according to Dostoevsky, would not want people to hear the 

messaage of Jesus. What, according to Dostoyevsky, is so dangerous about the message of Jesus 

that the Grand Inquisitor, knowing full well that it is truly Jesus, would arrest him and possibly 

put him to death?

Reading: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/grand.htm