Religious Views of Dostoevsky: Modern Interpretation

The aim of this work is connected with the comprehension of Dostoevsky's religious views and the analysis of contradictions in assessing the essence of his faith. In addition, the aim of the study is to analyze the religious and philosophical interpretations of Dostoevsky's ideas: historical and modern contexts. The objectives of the study are: analysis of the evolution of Dostoevsky's religious views on the example of his biography and literary activity; Studying positions of Dostoyevsky's contemporaries about his religiousness; Revealing the influence of the literary critic M. Bakhtin on contemporary researchers of Dostoevsky's work; Analysis and classification of modern research positions on the religious predisposition of Dostoevsky; The identification of scientific trends in researches on Dostoevsky. The following methods are used in the study: comparative analysis, synthesis, analytical method, generalization, classification, deduction, analogy. The results of this research primarily include modern scientific trends identified during the analysis. All researchers distinguish the influence of Soviet literary criticism on modern researches on Dostoevsky in the person of Bakhtin. Bakhtin is one of the first, who disclosed the dialogues of Dostoevsky's works. However, many researchers try to identify the main idea in the writer's works. Some, for example, Vetlovskaya, understand the religious views of the writer as a consequence of the synthesis of folk Orthodoxy with the European heritage. Others, for example, Kasatkina, talk about the continuity of main Christian motives by Dostoevsky. Kantor distinguish in Dostoevsky his religious philosophy and rethinking the main problems of the western branch of Christianity through the prism of Orthodoxy. Some researchers, for example, Klimova, interpret the writer's work as myth-making.