Gogol and Dostoevsky or the descent into hell
Article summary proposed by the Contacts review with LLM assistance
This article offers an analytical review of Paul Evdokimov's work, *Gogol et Dostoïevski ou la Descente aux enfers* (1961), written by Olivier Clément, whose doctoral research focused precisely on Dostoevsky and the problem of evil. Evdokimov's essay is not a double monograph, but a unified reflection on the way in which these two Russian writers illuminate an irreducible "hole of transcendence" at the heart of human existence. Gogol reveals unconscious atheism in the form of flatness and everyday evil, while Dostoevsky explores the extreme forms of conscious atheism in order to open them onto resurrection. The theological contribution of the work lies in the formulation of "agapic" and "iconosophic" arguments for the existence of God, and in a Christological rereading of suffering and holiness drawn from nineteenth-century Russian literature.
This article has not been translated yet — it is available in its French version here.
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