Chapter 85 Section 14 The Grand Inquisitor

Regarding "The Brothers Karamazov", Freud once praised emotionally: "This is the most magnificent novel so far. The description of the Grand Judge in the novel is one of the peaks in world literature, and its value is as high as Immeasurable.” The Grand Inquisitor, found in the fifth section of the second volume of The Brothers Karamazov, is a story that can stand on its own, which is summarized as follows: Spain in the sixteenth century was in the most terrible era of the religious inquisition.At this time, fifteen long centuries have passed since the prophecy in the Book of Revelation in the Bible that God will come to the world.One day, God finally came to the world, and he appeared in human form on the burning square (just yesterday, this square burned alive hundreds of heretics).Although God appeared quietly, everyone recognized him at once.People rushed to him, surrounded him, gathered around him, and followed him.People cried and kissed the ground he walked on.The children threw flowers in front of him and sang.Everyone said repeatedly, "This must be him, and it can't be anyone else except him."

The Cardinal Inquisitor himself, who was nearly ninety years old, happened to be walking through the square.He also recognized God, but he ordered the guards to catch him.The guards imprisoned the prisoner in a narrow, gloomy domed prison in the ancient building of the Inquisition. In prison, the Inquisitor had a conversation with God.In fact, it should be said that the Inquisitor spoke alone, because God did not say a word from the beginning to the end. So the Inquisitor told God, "I know exactly what you're going to say. You have no right, even yourself, to add to what you've said before. Why do you come here to hinder us?  …Since you If you have given everything to the Pope, then everything is in the hands of the Pope, you don’t have to come now, at least you shouldn’t come in the way now..."

At the end of the story, the Inquisitor went to the door, opened the door, and said to God, "Go away and never come again... Never come again... Never, ever!" So God departed, and he complied with the demands of his servant, the Inquisitor. (Note: The depth and breadth of Tuo’s thinking among the religious judges are far from being exhausted by simple quotations in the article. The reasons why the religious judges asked God to leave are also extremely complicated and profound, and are limited by the length of the article. , cannot be detailed.) We see that the Inquisitor, acting as a servant, actually casts out the God he serves.He must let God go in order to continue to maintain his supreme authority and continue to maintain his rule over the people.