Christ the Savior-Holy Spirit Orthodox Church
Archpriest Steven C. Kostoff
4285 Ashland Ave, Cincinnati OH 45212 - (513) 351-0907
Adult Reading Group

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Updated July 27, 2009

 

Literary Reading Group, Summer 2009
  • Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Additional Materials: This article by Fr Steven, plus handouts distributed at class meetings and in church.


UPCOMING SESSIONS:

  • Monday, Aug 3, 7:30pm - Parts V and VI
  • Monday, Aug 10, 7:30pm - Epilogue and Film (at the Leara's home)



June 30, 2009:

The debut of our Literary Reading Group was a smashing success yesterday evening! We had very good participation, but even more importantly we had a very lively and animated discussion based upon our reading of Dostoevsky's masterpiece Crime and Punishment. It was very intellectually stimulating to share our various reading experiences of a novel that so profoundly deals with sin and redemption; guilt and the human conscience; suffering and its meaning; and the question of the moral and ethical implications about the existence or non-existence of God. (There were a few lively disagreements, but everyone was talking to each other when our session ended). All of this is presented through Dostoevsky's inimitable style expressed through a gallery of intriguing and unforgettable characters. We discussed the first two parts of a six part novel yesterday evening, so there is plenty of time to "catch up" before our next meeting, which will cover parts three and four.

That meeting may be as early as Monday evening, July 13, but we are still working on the next date. I will keep everyone informed.

- Fr Steven


June 26, 2009:

Dear Parish Faithful,

The following note and attachment are for those who are reading Crime and Punishment in the Adult Reading Group. I do not have an exact list of those signed up, but since that list is fairly extensive, I need to send this out parish-wide. Please feel free to delete if this is not of any immediate concern to you.

The attachment contains a rather popularized article that I wrote about Dostoevsky a few years and which appeared in Again magazine. It is meant to provide background on Dostoevsky as a Christian writer/thinker of some magnitude in the 19th c. I will also have another short article about Dostoevsky available on Sunday.

At this late date, I am not quite sure how we are going to proceed with the discussion(?), but I believe that we do not want to spend a great deal of time rehearsing the plot. We want to enter into the content and "spirit" of the book. As noted before, we are going to concentrate on Pts. I & II in this first of three scheduled discussions, but we will probably need to presuppose knowledge of Raskolnikov's eventual fate.

Possible questions:

What kind of environment does Doestoevsky create in which to unfold the psychological drama of Raskolnikov?

Who is Raskolnikov and what do we learn of his character and ideas up to this point in the novel?

If you are "sympathetic" to Raskolnikov in any manner, what does Dostoevsky do to perhaps create such a reaction?

Dostoevsky wrote within the context of a Russian Orthodox society and culture. Is there anything in the novel that points to that particular world?

I realize that we may all be reading various translations, for many exist of Crime and Punishment. I am working off of the paperback edition translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky.

- Fr. Steven