Grand Inquisitor Outline

The crux of the Grand Inquisitor’s argument is that people would prefer not to have a free will. Building off of Ivan’s reflections on the suffering of children in Rebellion, the Grand Inquisitor predicates “that a child’s happiness is sweeter than any other.” The Grand Inquisitor believes that the material joys and pleasures of life are superior to those of the spiritual. He states that Jesus’ decisions with respect to the devil’s three temptations were made disregarding what is best for mankind.

1. First temptation – Turning stone to bread.

i. Satan challenges Jesus to turn stone into bread in order to quench the hunger of those who walked the desert with him without any food

ii. Jesus refuses to do so as he will not exchange bread for the “obedience” of followers

iii. Note that the quote “fire from heaven” is used for the second time. The first time it was cited was in Rebellion.

iv. Grand Inquisitor declares that the people would rather be enslaved and fed – “Better that you enslave us, but feed us.”

v. Inquisitor states that the bread of Heaven, freedom and the will power to choose to do what is right, is nothing in comparison to the bread of the Earth in the eyes of man – “can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, eternally depraved, and eternally ignoble human race?”

vi. His last grand claim with respect to the first temptation is that peace in death would be preferred than living with the responsibility of discerning between right and wrong

2. Second temptation – Jumping from pinnacle and having an Angel come to rescue

i. Jesus did not jump from the pinnacle to prove to Satan that an angel would save him, and thus Jesus rejected miracles

ii. Grand Inquisitor claims that man needs and thirsts for miracles, as he does bread, and that without a miracle it is beyond man’s ability to have religious faith

iii. The Inquisitor claims that Jesus expects too much of a man, to not give them a miracle and to still maintain the expectation that man will freely choose to follow him

iv. The Inquisitor cites that man has and will continue to make his own miracles in order to develop a faith.

3. Third temptation – Uniting all of mankind into one kingdom and ruling it

i. Grand Inquisitor states that people seek unity, and that in rejecting all three temptations, Jesus rejected the possibility of uniting all of mankind. For turning the stone to bread would take away a source of conflict, and, furthermore, it would indicate who the people should bow down, as would performing a miracle. Simply taking the reign from Caesar and ruling the Earth would also unite mankind, but Jesus rejects this too.

ii. The Grand Inquisitor not only states that Jesus rejects unity but implicitly relegates responsibility for the separation of mankind and gross actions such as anthropophagy to Jesus by referencing the tower of Babel. How is man to live peacefully with others with the obstacles of race, language, and religion God has established?

iii. The Inquisitor claims that he has fulfilled man’s need to be united by establishing a vast kingdom, and by deceiving the people into believing that it is under God.

Ivan ends the story with God kissing the Grand Inquisitor in the same manner that Zosima bowed to Dmitry and Alyosha kissed Ivan. This, I believe, is Ivan’s way of showing that he is cognizant of the fact that the only way to live up to God’s expectations is to make a huge leap of faith.