“WATER THE EARTH”: DOSTOEVSKY ON TEARS George Pattison
“WATER THE EARTH”: DOSTOEVSKY ON TEARS George Pattison As opposed to modern Western culture, in which tears are seen as unmanly, Dostoevsky inherits not only a cultural but also a religious tradition that gives positive significance to tears in the spiritual life, as in the teachings of Isaac the Syrian, which Dostoevsky knew. According to this teaching, tears manifest a dispossession of the ego and an opening of the self to God. This is illustrated by reference to the story of Alyosha’s religious experience, recounted in Chapter IV of Book VII of The Brothers Karamazov, which also...
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