Christ against truth

I just finished the first chapter of a book (Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, & Fiction, written by Rowan Williams) that from the introduction has been shaping into a wonderfully insightful book on Dostoevsky’s writing, specifically the religious-theological aspects within his work.
One of key concepts which has emerged for me so far, is the importance of freedom. The first chapter is dealing with a comment that Dostoevsky makes in 1854 (while he is still in house arrest, after his imprisonment in Siberia), “if someone were to prove to me that Christ was outside the truth, and it was really the case that the truth lay outside Christ, then I should choose to stay with Christ rather than with the truth”

You this played out to some extent in Notes from the Underground, where the protagonist of the story feels compelled to argue against the fact of 2+2=4. He would rather live to his detriment than succumb to the rationally guided life, because that life lacks any possibility—rational thought disconnects any possibility any future, it takes decision making away from man.

Also Ivan’s story of “the Grand Inquisitor” deals with the problem of freedom. Ivan sees that problem of evil rooted in our freedom. If we could take away that freedom then you have found the solution to evil. The implicit {explicit?} question throughout is what the role Christ played/plays within history. Is the change that Christ promises only for the future, separate from this world? For the character of Ivan, he believes this to be the case, and finds that unacceptable. Recall the statement that he makes to Alyosha before his story, that he loves the sticky leaves of Spring, but that he will give that youthful zeal up at age thirty. He doesn’t want to give into what he feels will be the sweep of emotion, when all will proclaim hosanna. But interestingly he decides to wait until thirty, some seven years from then. Why it seems would he prolong his experience, but because he still has hope in that thing which stands in opposition to the truth.

All this is still rather fuzy. Hopefully less opacity will follow.