In short Christianity is seen as valuing individuals who were made by the Creator whose purpose is to become more good or godlike Socialism is seen as the valuing the collective over individuals in a society in which individuals bow to govt works... which in biblical terms means humans without God create towers of towers of Babel. --- context --- 1. the protestant revolution - came about because Luther said individuals were to be valued and they had rights to read the bible themselves, enter into a relationship with God without the help of an institution.... These ideas directly led to individual rights over current govts, monarchy and Catholic church. The protestant revolution was part of the old liberal enlightenment ideal of individual rights granted by a creator who recognized the worth of individuals. 2. Socialism is about the worth of the collective and big powerful govt. 3. Dostoyevsky was imprisioned for being an old style liberal. t... when he got out he became more orthodox catholic, more tradational russian and anti powerful govt and anti socialism.
that would be interesting considering that anyone who has studied the life of jesus, as described in the book, would know that he was a socialist at heart.
Everyone has some kind of "immortality project", as Ernest Becker called it, as their higher power. Without one it would be impossible for a man to get out of bed. No one pulls themselves up "by the bootstraps".
You have to understand the context... Dostoyevsky was writing during the time when Russia was going through some turbulent times. It was natural for him to juxtapose the his understanding of the world to that of the "nihilists". This theme is even more stark in other Russian literature of the time, such as Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons".