This study is an analysis and interpretation of Dostoevsky's literary presentation of Christianity. It revises the image of Fyodor Dostoevsky as a novelist with a Russian Orthodox world view. On the basis of textual analysis of his five great novels, I argue that Dostoevsky not only remains aloof from traditional Orthodoxy but is also not an ‘alternative’ Orthodox. The writer Dostoevsky gives expression to a biblical and ethical Christianity, not connected with institutional forms of religion. The study is based on a balanced method of literary analysis and theological evaluation of the texts, avoiding the free theological association and the hermeneutical mixing with the non-literary writings of Dostoevsky, that characterize many studies of religious themes in Dostoevsky's novels.

By free theological association I mean that, often subconsciously, Dostoevsky is placed within the researcher's religious line of thought or, more consciously, interpreted from a denominational viewpoint. Christian terminology and scenes from the novels are then often used to lead to further religious reflections, or theological evaluations of Dostoevsky's non-conformist views on the official church doctrine. In such cases, the researcher's religious interest over-rules a business-like literary analysis. In my case, an implicit view of religion unavoidably plays a role, of course, but I have not used it in a normative way and have limited myself to a literal analysis of texts, not giving symbolic interpretations or unveiling ‘hidden’ iconic images.

Hermeneutical mixing is a question of principle, with which one fundamentally agrees or disagrees, dependent on the various streams in Dostoevsky studies.