Fyodor Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, explores the question of God’s existence against the backdrop of suffering and betrayal within a troubled family. The genius of Dostoevsky is to have grasped that there can be no love for human beings without a love for God — and conversely, there can be no belief in God without a deep and profound love for mankind. In this lecture, Professor Healy presents a brief overview of the structure and characters of the novel, focusing on the themes of solidarity and forgiveness.

This lecture is the first of a three-part series titled "Tales That Tell: Moral Devastation and Original Sin in Literature," co-sponsored by the Catholic Information Center and the Thomistic Institute. It was delivered on September 19, 2018 to the DC Young Adults chapter of the Thomistic Institute.

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