In the previous chapters, I have attempted to give an analysis of the Christianity presented by Dostoevsky in his novels, based on textual evidence and literal interpretation of words and passages. This resulted in a sober evaluation of Dostoevsky's literary Christianity. On the one hand, I have found few expressions of traditional Orthodox ideas and images, on the other, it has become clear that the novels contain many religious elements, many biblical references and essential Christian ideas. In this closing chapter, I want to summarize my conclusions and clarify the religious presuppositions that have implicitly played a role in my judgement of the contents of Dostoevsky's novels.

The first part of my conclusion – the non-Orthodox character of the novels – is summarized by references to the main characters in them. To be perfectly clear, I do not use the term ‘orthodox’ in a normative sense, but in a phenomenological sense: ‘relating to Eastern Orthodoxy’.

• Raskolnikov did not come to the market place for his public, non-ecclesiastical confession from Orthodox motives and he did not end in the penal colony as a reborn Christian. Sonya propagated the Christian idea of resurrection from a Bible that was given to her by a Protestant woman. Raskolnikov did not open the Bible.

• Myshkin did not become the personification of an ideal Christian, let alone a symbolical Christ-figure, in spite of his evangelical virtues and his deep remarks on belief. He fails in his ethical calling. All the main characters in the novel come to a bad end.

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