THE GRAND IQUISITOR
The story was told by Ivan to his brother Alyosha. About how, Christ, came back to earth in Seville at the time of the Inquisitor. He performs a number of miracles. The people recognize him and accepted him as their savoir, but he was soon arrested again by Inquisition leaders and sentenced to death the next day. The Grand Inquisitor went to him in his cell to tell him that the Church no longer needs him. The main idea of the story is about the temptation of Christ by Satan. Inquisitor explains to Jesus why his return would interfere with the mission of the church.
The Inquisitor criticizes Jesus about the three questions Satan asked Jesus during the temptation of Christ in the desert. These three temptations turn stones into bread, the temptation to cast Himself from the Temple and be saved by the angels, and the temptation to rule over all the kingdoms of the world. The Inquisitor states that Jesus rejected these three temptations in favor of freedom. The Inquisitor thinks that Jesus has misjudged human nature, though. He does not believe that the vast majority of humanity can handle the freedom which Jesus has given them. Thus, he implies that Jesus, in giving humans freedom to choose, has excluded the majority of humanity from redemption and doomed humanity to suffer.
Despite declaring the Inquisitor to be an atheist, Ivan also said that the Inquisitor and the Church follow the wise spirit, the dread spirit of death and destruction, which mean the Devil, Satan, for him, through compulsion, provided the tools to end all human suffering and unite under the banner of the Church. The people were guided through the Church by the few who are strong enough to take on the problem of freedom. The Inquisitor says that under him, all mankind will live and die happily in ignorance. Though he leads them only to death and destruction, they will be happy along the way. The Inquisitor will be the leader, spending his life to keep choice from humanity....