This article deals with the search for truth as manifested in selected works by Ivan Cankar, F. M. Dostoyevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. Throughout his life, Ivan Cankar remained true to his principle of having an ethical mission and of Truth being the “ultimate idea” of art. He was the first Slovenian writer to truly penetrate into the special problems of the human consciousness. Dostoyevsky, meanwhile, presents his views on psychological, moral and metaphysical conflicts through his literary protagonists. Tolstoy’s novels are a mirror for human passions, strengths, weaknesses, fears and hopes; he sees the solution for the emptiness of the modern world in a spirituality that effectively unites people of all cultures and religions. Comparing these authors and their works gives rise to intertextual analysis and interreligious hermeneutics. This allows us to reflect on the influence and reception these great writers – these analysts of the human soul – on the general public in the spirit of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.
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