THE IDEA OF THE CHURCH AS UNITY IN F. M. DOSTOYEVSKY’S NOVEL “THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV”

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to clarify the value architectonics of Dostoevsky’s novel «The Brothers Karamazov» in terms of the meaning of the idea of the Church in its motive structure. The idea of the Church is considered as a sense-forming element of the author’s concept of the novel. It is proved that the Church is understood by Dostoevsky not only as a social institution, manifested in the microcosm of the monastic structure, but also as a community of the entire created world, acquired by him in his Creator. The idea of the Church in the novel is intertwined with the idea of the unity of the visible and invisible worlds, the ideas of spiritual overcoming of spatial distance and physical time. At the narrative level, the idea of the Church in the novel is realized in the motives of bowing, love of life, motives of guilt and responsibility associated with the formula “everyone is to blame for everyone”, which includes the entire created world, including both people and the world of nature.