Dostoyevsky and Lutheranism

Dostoyevsky never studied Lutheran theology. His judgements on Lutheranism were based mainly on his experience of communication with German Lutherans in St. Petersburg and Germany. Those judgments were logically connected with his views of world politic; so, they must be considered in its context. During the war between Russia and Turkey in 1876-1878, he was sure that it was the threshold of the struggle for the domination in the world between three forces: Roman Catholicism (promoted by France), Pan-Germanism, and united Slavs headed by Russian Empire. Lutheranism in his view was the first step from Roman Catholicism to atheism, and, in his time, a necessary ingredient of Pan-Germanism. Nevertheless, in one little-known note Dostoyevsky wrote that that time every Russian who had true faith in God actually belonged to the confession in which Greek Orthodoxy was combined with Lutheranism. It looks like under the nickname of Lutheranism Dostoyevsky criticized liberal theology. The confessional / conservative Lutheranism, represented by persons like August Neander, Wilhelm Löhe, Charles Porterfield Krauth, was not touched by his criticism.