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PARTISAN REVIEW
must positively begin with atheism, it was his duty first of all to depose
Christianity-the religion from which emerged the moral principles of
the society he negated. And he radically negated the family, property,
the moral responsibility of the individual. (I might add that, like
Herzen, he was himself a good husband and a good father.) No doubt
he understood that in denying the moral responsibility of man he was
depriving
him
of his freedom; yet at the same time he believed with
his whole being that socialism not only does not wipe out the freedom
of the individual but, on the contrary, that it actually raises it to un–
heard-of grandeur, establishing it on adamantine foundations.
All that remained then, was the glowing personality of Christ, with
which it was most difficult to cope.
As
a socialist Belinsky was in duty
bound to subvert the teaching of Christ, terming it a mendacious and
ignorant idolatry of man, condemned by contemporary science and the
principles of political economy. However, there still remained the lumin–
ous image of the Son of God, His ethical inaccessibility, His wondrous
and miraculous beauty. Belinsky, in his constant, unquenchable enthu–
siasm, would not be stopped even by this insuperable barrier, as Renan
was stopped, who, in his book
Vie de jesus,
full of unbelief, none the
less declared that Christ is the ideal of human beauty, an inaccessible
type which humanity can never be expected to bring forth again.
"Do you know?" Belinsky screamed at me one evening (he was
always screaming as he got excited). "Do you know that it is not ethical
to heap sins upon man and to put him under all sorts of obligations,
when society is so badly organized that man cannot help doing evil,
since he is economically led to wickedness
(ekonomichesky priveden k
zlodeistvu).
It is inept and cruel to demand of man that which he can–
not fulfill according to the laws of his nature, even
if
he wished to do so."
That evening we were not alone. A friend of Belinsky's was present,
a person whom he greatly esteemed and listened to with attention.
"It hurts me to look at him," Belinsky suddenly interrupted his ve–
hement discourse, pointing toward me. "Every time I mention Christ
his face changes so, falling to pieces as if he were about to cry. Yes,
believe me, simple-hearted man that you are," and here again he threw
himself at me, "believe me that that Christ of yours, had he been born
in our time, would be the most ordinary, inconsequential person; he
would have to efface himself in the presence of contemporary science
and leaders of humanity."
"Well, not quite," Belinsky's friend intervened. (I remember that
we were sitting down while Belinsky was racing up and down the room.)
"Well, no.
If
Christ were to appear now he would surely join the move–
ment and become its head. . . ."
