Date

5-20-2026

Degree

Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics (MA)

Chair

Robert Talley

Keywords

Literary, Apologetics, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Russian, Ubermensch, Karamazov, Zarathustra, Madman, Genealogy, Narrative, Literature, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Raskolnikov, Punishment, Guilt, Story

Disciplines

Philosophy | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

This thesis argues that modern man’s attempt to dispense with God inevitably results in psychological, moral, and existential collapse, a reality most powerfully revealed through the literary works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Leo Tolstoy. Before Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God and called humanity to transcend traditional morality through the rise of the Übermensch, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy had already responded, not merely with philosophical counterarguments, but with stories that exposed the devastating consequences of life divorced from the divine. Through literary apologetics, this thesis examines the broader cultural and spiritual conversation taking place between these nineteenth-century thinkers and demonstrates its continued relevance for modernity. The study begins by examining Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Gay Science, and The Genealogy of Morals. Particularly, his rejection of slave morality, his diagnosis of nihilism, and his call for humanity to create its own meaning in the absence of God. From there, the thesis turns to Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, showing how Raskolnikov and Ivan Karamazov embody the logical and psychological outworking of Nietzschean thought before ultimately collapsing beneath the weight of guilt, despair, and moral incoherence. The argument then moves to Tolstoy, specifically focusing on two of his greatest works, Anna Karenina and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. These works reveal a different but equally destructive consequence of God’s absence: the emptiness and spiritual decay of the Last Man, produced by comfort, secularism, and the pursuit of self-satisfaction. Ultimately, this thesis contends that literature functions as a uniquely powerful apologetic tool because it engages not only the intellect but also the imagination, conscience, and soul. Through the stories of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, the insufficiency of radical individualism is exposed, and the Christian vision of meaning, suffering, morality, and redemption is presented as the only enduring foundation upon which human life can stand. God is not merely a philosophical possibility but a metaphysical necessity.

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