A journey in the company of Dostoevsky’s villains in a quest for our own humanity

A discussion of how Dostoevsky uses the point of view of his characters to instigate a sense of our true predicament as sinners, while revealing that we too are not altogether innocent.

A presentation by Dr. Olga MEERSON, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages, Georgetown University

Presented by Crossroads Cultural Center & co-sponsored by Radius

Dostoevsky is truly one of "our" authors, a writer who expressed prophetically the great struggle that we also face. It has been said that the history the last hundred years has simply been the unfolding of the great ideologies of the XIX century: scientism, socialism, individualism, progressivism. While all of them at some level present an option for atheism, what was clear to Dostoevsky is that what is really at stake in the modern world is humanity. Paradoxically, the attempt to remove God ends up eliminating humanity, by denying that most profound dimension of our being which is freedom. Dostoevsky realized that to be human means to be a relationship with the Infinite, with the Mystery, which calls to mind a quote from The Possessed which was dear to Fr. Giussani, "The whole law of human existence consists of making it possible for man to bow down before what is infinitely great. If man were to be deprived of the infinitely great, he would refuse to go on living, and die of despair." This deprivation of the Mystery, and thus the withering away of freedom, is truly the predicament of modern man. But the Mystery does not give up on us, and keeps creeping back into history and calling our freedom back to Himself. Few writers have been as aware of this drama as Dostoevsky, and for this reason he is for us still today a guide and a teacher of humanity.

About this Event

Date: Friday, October 30, 2009
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Pryzbyla Center, Great Room B
The Catholic University of America
620 Michigan Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20064 Metro: Red Line, Brookland/CUA

About the Speakers

Dr. Olga Meerson
Associate Professor of Slavic Languages, Georgetown University

Invitation

Download the Invitation here

Photos - click on image below