ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses primarily on Dostoevsky's use of the symbolism of Revelation to depict the moral and psychological dynamics of his characters in relation to the question of divine justice. His writings are replete with references to memory and remembering and to the apocalyptic end of all things. The chapter explores how Dostoevsky used these references to answer the challenge posed by Ivan Karamazov/the Inquisitor to the meaning and nature of divine justice in the world. "The Grand Inquisitor" can be read as a legal trial concerning the true meaning of human nature and history, where the God revealed in Christ is in the dock. The inquisition scene is staged precisely to lay bare the spiritual roots of rebellion. Ivan's poetic tale of "The Grand Inquisitor" is clearly an antiliturgical setting, a deliberate parody of the poetics of Christian liturgical theology.
