The dispute about church court in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” (F. M. Dostoevsky and V. S. Solovyov)

In chapters V and VI of the second volume of “The Brothers Karamazov” by F. M. Dostoevsky a dispute about church court starts. The motifs of “social Christianity” not mentioned by researchers earlier become apparent here. A certain correlation of the way of thinking of the characters, sometimes very accurate, with exact viewpoints of some Russian thinkers upon certain issues or even with certain movements of social thought take place in this dispute. This study shows that Ivan Karamazov presents the theocratic utopia about future transformation of the State into “the Universal Church” asserted by Vladimir Solovyov (although he does not seem to believe much in it). The other disputer, father Paisius, an adherent of Slavophilism, at the same time favour Solovyov's utopia deriving from Slavophilic ideas. In his novel Dostoevsky contraposes this utopia in the form of both theoretic and rational idea of Ivan Karamazov, to the earthly, humanistic and reachable ideal of “the Universal Church”. According the monk Zosima, the grounds of this ideal exist in Russian society that proves that the ideal is likely to come true in future.