In The Da Vinci Code, the theme of the Grail is nothing more than a detective fantasy, behind which it is not difficult to see the author's painfully obsessive feminism. "The Grail," said Langdon, "is a symbol of the lost goddess. With the advent of Christianity, the old pagan religions did not die. And the legends about the knights' search for the Holy Grail were in fact stories about the forbidden search for the lost sacred feminine principle" (ch.58). Such an arbitrary interpretation becomes possible because numerous readers of this detective story (both in Russia and in the West) are cut off not only from Christian roots, but also from classical culture. They do not know the most elementary things in this area. The topic of the Holy Grail has been professionally studied by prominent historians and philologists. Some major works can be mentioned: Dashkevich N.P., The Legend of the Holy Grail. — in his book: From the History of Medieval Romanticism. Kiev, 1877; Veselovsky A.N., Where was the legend of the Holy Grail formed? St. Petersburg, 1900; Marx J., La legende arthurienne et le Graal, P., 1952; Markale J. Le Graal, Paris, 1982 and others.

How to evaluate the main ideas of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" from a Christian standpoint?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)  

This work was first conceived as a "psychological account of a crime." The original idea can be judged from a letter (mid-September 1865) from F. Dostoevsky to the editor of the "Russian Herald" M. Katkov, with whom he negotiated the publication. The writer was going to show the state of painful struggle in the soul of the "ideological" murderer after the crime he committed: "Unsolvable questions arise before the murderer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, the earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to denounce himself. Forced to perish in penal servitude, but to join the people again; The feeling of disconnection and separation from humanity, which he felt immediately after committing the crime, tormented him. The law of truth and human nature have taken their toll... The criminal himself decides to accept torment in order to atone for his deed" (Poln. sobr. soch. V 30-ti t. L., 1985. Vol. 28, kn. 2, p. 137). Notes made in a rough notebook show that the writer first wanted to write a confession on behalf of the main character, written down shortly after the murder. F. Dostoevsky penetrates deeply into the inner world of man and accurately depicts what the Holy Fathers comprehended through spiritual experience. Later he wrote in "The Diary of a Writer" (1873): "I was in penal servitude and saw criminals, "solved" criminals... But, I am right, perhaps none of them has escaped a long spiritual suffering within themselves, the most purifying and strengthening. I saw them lonely thoughtful, I saw them in church praying before confession; he listened to their individual sudden words, to their exclamations; I remember their faces—oh, believe me, none of them considered himself right in his soul! I would not like my words to be mistaken for cruelty. But still I dare to express it. I will say frankly: by severe punishment, imprisonment and penal servitude, you would perhaps have saved half of them. They would have eased them, not burdened them. Self-purification by suffering is easier—easier, I tell you, than the fate which you make for many of them by the sheer justification of them in judgment. You only instill cynicism in his soul, leave him with a seductive question and mockery of you. You don't believe it? Over you, over your judgment, over the judgment of the whole country! You pour into their souls a lack of faith in the truth of the people, in the truth of God; you leave him confused." St. Gregory the Theologian writes about the judgment of one's own conscience: "It is impossible to escape from this one thing – from the judgment seat within ourselves, which one can look at and follow the straight path."

In the course of working on the work, as the plot became more complex and the ideological plan expanded, F. Dostoevsky realized that the form of confession limited his capabilities: "Confession in other points will not be chaste and it is difficult to imagine what it is written for. But from the author. It takes too much naivety and frankness. It is necessary to assume the author as an omniscient and infallible being, exposing one of the members of the new generation to everyone."

For a religious assessment of the novel "Crime and Punishment", it is important to turn to the draft notes made for the third (final) edition of the novel: "The Orthodox view of what Orthodoxy is: there is no happiness in comfort, happiness is bought by suffering. Such is the law of our planet, but this direct consciousness, felt by the process of life, is such a great joy that one can pay for it with years of suffering" (PSS, Vol. 7, p. 155).

The author significantly complicates the plot, and shifts the ideological center: the main idea in the novel is the resurrection of a spiritually dead person. The Gospel narrative of the resurrection of Lazarus constitutes the spiritual nerve of the entire work, its ideological and compositional center.

Of all the many miracles performed by the Lord in the days of His earthly life, the resurrection of Lazarus is of particular significance. Lazarus, who comes out of the tomb at the voice of the Savior, depicts our future resurrection from the dead: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the time is coming, and it is now, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and when they have heard, they shall live" (John 5:25). Lazarus not only died, but walked "the way of the whole earth" (3 Kings 2:2). He was laid in a tomb and experienced corruption. We will walk this path, but we will be raised up by the One Who has power over life and death. But before rising from bodily death, man must be resurrected spiritually. The writer himself survived this in a penal colony, which he called the House of the Dead. In a letter (January-February 1854) to N.I. Fonvizina, the wife of the exiled Decembrist, he says after leaving the prison: "I will tell you about myself that I am a child of the century, a child of disbelief and doubt to this day, and even (I know this) to the grave. What terrible torments this thirst for faith has cost me, and what a thirst for faith has cost me now, which is all the stronger in my soul, the more contrary arguments there are in me. And yet God sometimes sends me moments in which I am completely calm; At these moments I love and find that I am loved by others, and at such moments I have formed within myself a symbol of faith, in which everything is clear and holy to me. This symbol is very simple, here it is: to believe that there is nothing more beautiful, deeper, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more courageous and more perfect than Christ, and not only is there not, but with jealous love I say to myself that it cannot be."

The miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus is mentioned three times in the novel. Porfiry Petrovich spoke about him for the first time. By the force of his investigative logic, he came to the conviction that it was Raskolnikov who committed the murder, but he has no direct evidence. He made a psychologically correct decision: to awaken the conscience of the criminal and lead him to a confession. When Raskolnikov, expressing his ideas, mentioned the New Jerusalem, Porfiry Petrovich suddenly asked:

So you still believe in the New Jerusalem, don't you?

"I do," answered Raskolnikov firmly; As he spoke, and throughout his long tirade, he looked at the ground, choosing a point on the carpet.

"Do you believe in God?" Sorry for being so curious.

"I do," repeated Raskolnikov, looking up at Porfiry.

"And--and you believe in the resurrection of Lazarus?"