Spiritual Formation (Spiritual Reading part 3)

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Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Romans 12:9)

But how can I help believing it?  I have seen the truth – it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul for ever. (Dostoyevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, Kindle location 96361)

           

           Fyodor Dostoyevsky is not normally associated with Spiritual Formation, nor do any of his works appear in Foster & Smith’s Devotional Classics.  However, the unnamed narrator in Dostoyevsky’s Dream of a Ridiculous Man embodies the change that is the goal of Spiritual Formation; moreover, perhaps his dream can be understood as formation.  Before you read this short story, be aware, it goes into very dark places and touches on sensitive subjects.

Dostoyevsky rightly expresses the pessimism and emptiness that is the logical consequence of a life without God.  We will refer to the unnamed narrator as the dreamer.  An ego-centric man has become numb to his existence and his surroundings, including the cries of a little girl for help (Ibid. 96180).  However, this numbness is then confronted with the idea of paradise.  A world untouched by sin and people living in harmony with each other, their surroundings and their animals (Ibid. 96260).  It’s the perfection of the world that affects the dreamer.  But when paradise is lost, these people change; they learn lying, form groups and shed blood and discover science.  Science becomes the new god of that formerly perfect world, and those formerly perfect people think that science will lead them back to perfection.  Something that science is incapable of doing.

Therefore, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man can be understood as a Spiritual Formation text, because we are in the same place as the dreamer.  When he awakens, he knows there is no amount of human effort that will restore what has been lost.  Human ways and sciences could not restore the dream world, nor can they restore this world.  The dreamer is now convinced, the truth is the only answer.  The dreamer’s world is our world.  His realization is our realization.  And his path is our path.  You see, we are the dreamer.

Written by Pastor Ozzy

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Works Cited

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. 2015. The Complete Works, Novles, Short Stories and Autobiographical Writings. n.a.: E-artnow.

1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.