The Modern Abyss: Dostoevsky and Nietzsche Confronting the Death of God
Dostoyevski and Nietzsche in the style of Chagall. AI image Note: This text was originally written in Spanish and is presented here in English translation. Introduction The crisis of nineteenth-century Europe was not merely political or scientific; it was, above all, spiritual. The erosion of Christian faith, the transformation of moral values, and the emergence of a radically historical consciousness confronted modern thought with an unsettling question: how is one to live when God no longer guarantees meaning? Within this horizon emerge two central figures, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Friedrich Nietzsche, often read side by side and frequently linked through the notion of a supposed direct influence. Yet what binds them is not a relation of dependence but a deeper affinity: a shared confrontation with nihilism and with the responsibility that arises once life must be lived without transcendent foundations. The decisive difference between them lies in how they respond to this condition....