ABSTRACT
The focus on love is pivotal from an educational perspective, for in the position adopted by Father Zosima we find a key pedagogical claim, namely that love can be seen as a teacher. Fyodor Dostoevsky's primary concern is not with an abstract 'love of humankind'; rather, his focus is on a form of active love that teaches us how to love individual human beings, with all their frailties and flaws. The importance of love as a theme in The Brothers Karamazov is evident from early on in the novel. Love teaches those who teach as well as those who learn. Prayer, as loving attention, is one way to enact this principle. Teaching involves constant attention to myriad small features of each pedagogical context and situation, from the temperature and layout of a room, to the subtle facial gestures and other movements of students, to the texts under examination.
