Captain America: Civil War and the Grand Inquisitor

I don’t like my heroes to be relatable. A video I watched recently about the DC Universe movie Birds of Prey favorably compared Harly Quinn, the anti-hero of Birds of Prey, to Wonder Woman. Harly Quinn, with her flaws and brokenness, is a more relatable and understandable screen presence than the immaculate Wonder Woman, the video argued. But I don’t want my heroes to be like me, I want them to be better. Heroes should inspire us to be better than we are, not to commiserate with us in our moral mediocrity. 

That’s why I like Captain America, aka Steve Rogers, more than Iron Man, aka Tony Stark. Steve’s defining feature is he will always do what’s right. This doesn’t make him boring or lead to no conflict, because Steve has to be constantly negotiating what is right in a changing world. And this aspiration to always do good while in flux is relatable. I want to do what is right, but I’m not always sure what that is.

This leads to the conflict of Captain America: Civil War. After the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron largely destroy the fictional country of Sokovia, the United Nations step in to try to oversee the actions of the Avengers. Tony, grappling with the destruction that he caused by creating and subsequently defeating Ultron, pushes for the Sokovia Accords: “If we can’t accept limitations, if we’re boundaryless, we’re no better than the bad guys.” Steve, on the other hand, distrustful of oversight because of Hydra’s infiltration of SHIELD in Captain America: the Winter Soldier, believes that the accords will limit their ability to do good. He also believes “Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say 'No, you move'.”

This reminded me of a quote I read once from Hillary Clinton. I’m not going to get into her policies or actions, I’m just going to stick to this quote which fascinates me. Talking about the ‘poem’ the Grand Inquisitor written by Ivan Karamazov in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel the Brothers Karamazov, Clinton says, “For a lot of reasons, that was an important part of my thinking. One of the greatest threats we face is from people who believe they are absolutely, certainly right about everything.” I recommend reading the Grand Inquisitor, it’s pretty short as far as 19th century Russian literature goes, but I think this is a fascinating interpretation of the text.

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery/philosophical discourse that follows the Karamazov’s, Dimitri, Ivan, Alyosha, and their illegitimate half-brother Smerdyakov, in the events leading up to and immediately following the murder of their father, Fyodor. Ivan writes the Grand Inquisitor and reads it to Alyosha, a novice in a monastery, to explain why he rejects God’s offer of ‘heavenly bread.’ If the Kingdom of Heaven requires one infant to be in Hell, Ivan returns his ticket.

The Grand Inquisitor takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. Jesus has returned to earth to dwell once more among the people. They flock to him, He heals their sick, and raises their dead, but immediately, the Grand Inquisitor appears and arrests Jesus. The Grand Inquisitor criticizes the fact that it is ‘for freedom that Christ has set us free.’ According to the Grand Inquisitor, “for never was there anything more unbearable to the human race than personal freedom!” Therefore, the Inquisitor and the Church took the offer of Satan in the wilderness. They took up the Miracles, Mystery, and Authority that Jesus rejected so that men might follow him freely. Only by sizing all worldly authority can the church secure happiness for all on earth. Jesus, by condemning people to be free to follow him by their own choice, dooms most of the earth to anxiety and failure.

The Grand Inquisitor thinks that Jesus has given humanity too much credit. By valuing people so highly, Jesus has assured that the vast majority would never be able to follow him. Instead of giving freedom, Jesus should have taken authority for himself and made men happy. Realizing that the way of the Cross is impossible for most people, the Inquisitor realizes he has to doom himself to love the greater good. He makes the deal with the Devil, the ‘wise spirit’, Jesus turned down. He needs to claim all authority for the good of everyone.

And once convinced of it, he sees as clearly that to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance of the wise spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction, hence accept a system of lies and deception and lead humanity consciously this time toward death and destruction, and moreover, be deceiving them all the while in order to prevent them from realizing where they are being led, and so force the miserable blind men to feel happy, at least while here on earth. 

This is where I think Clinton gets her interpretation. The Inquisitor, believing himself to be absolutely right, burns Jesus at the stake. 

But it leaves me wondering what she would think of Captain America. Vision tells Cap, “I know you believe what you’re doing is right. But for the collective good you must surrender now.” Spiderman almost quotes Clinton, “You’re wrong. You think you’re right. That makes you dangerous.” But unlike Spiderman and Vision, Clinton’s quote is much more open ended. It wouldn’t seem to matter to her whether or not Steve is wrong, only the intensity of his belief.

But Dostoevsky, Steve Rogers, and I live in a world where there is a definitive right, and that right is fully embodied in the person that stands silent before the Inquisitor. Christ does not coerce or obligate us to follow him, but gives us the freedom to find life in Him. In Civil War, Steve wants the freedom to do good in the world. It gets somewhat muddled by his loyalty to his friend Bucky, but Steve resists the Sokovia Accords because he thinks they will be giving up their freedom. The objective of the UN could change, and Steve could find himself on the wrong side of what is right. It’s not that we shouldn’t have oversight, oversight often prevents harm, but I think Captain America is right that oversight or governments shouldn’t stop us from doing what we know is right. But it requires us to trust Steve Rogers to do what’s right. And Steve is heroic because we can trust him. His super soldier serum may make him super, but his ability to do what is right makes him a hero.