The Third Temptation Summary

The Inquisitor announces that it has been 800 years since the church ceased following the teachings of Christ, and has instead followed "Caesar," a symbolic word encompassing both the Caesar of Christ's day and any emperor or powerful nation to come. The Inquisitor goes on to predict that one day, the church will have complete dominion over everyone, including the state.

In lambasting Christ for his failure to seize global power when given the opportunity, the Inquisitor justifies his and his church's act of abandonment. Christ, once again in the name of freedom, rejected the offer of global dominion, thus leaving the world divided between those who follow, those who doubt, those who vacillate in faith, and those who reject faith. The Inquisitor and his church, on the other hand, became an accomplice of the state and forced its will...