More Dostoevsky please! Rowan Williams says ex-PM needs more soul-searching after evidence to Iraq war inquiry

The archbishop of Canterbury has renewed his criticism of Tony Blair by urging the former prime minister to recognise his "absurdity" in the wake of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war — and suggesting he read more Dostoevsky.

Repeating a previous quip that Blair is "very strong on God, very weak on irony", Rowan Williams said the former prime minister had perhaps not done enough soul-searching.

Speaking at a lecture on the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, Williams was asked by an audience member how he viewed Blair's appearance at the hearing last week in the context of his studies of the Crime and Punishment author.

Williams said: "I think Tony Blair is one of the most un-Dostoevskian characters in Britain."

He admitted earlier at the event hosted by St George's Church in central London that he loved Dostoevsky's characters because of their soul-searching and sharing of other people's burdens.

He said: "I did once rather unkindly say that Tony Blair did do God but he didn't do irony. Irony is when you recognise that your own sense of dramatic power is always something that is going to be absurd in the light of truth. The readiness to cope with that absurdity is something that you have to learn in order to grow up."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, while a self-confessed fan of Father Ted and the Muppet Christmas Carol, is one of Britain's foremost public intellectuals and an authority on the author of The Brothers Karamazov, The Devils and The Idiot.

Dostoevsky's most famous work, Crime and Punishment, tracks the breakdown of a murderous former student, Raskolnikov, who offers some fictional tips for coping with guilt. In a section where he is quizzed by a Chilcot-like investigating magistrate, Rakolnikov says: "If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be punishment - as well as the prison."

The former prime minister was heckled in his appearance at the Iraq war inquiry last month after he refused to voice regrets over the conflict. Blair told the inquiry: "Responsibility but not a regret for removing Saddam Hussein. I think he was a monster, I think he threatened not just a region but the world. Even if you look back now, it was better to deal with this threat, to remove him from office, and I do genuinely believe that the world is safer as a result."

Blair's lack of outright contrition drew a shout of "oh, come on" from one person.

Last year, Williams spoke of the "mistakes" of those behind the Iraq conflict, including the "policymakers" who had lost sight of the war's cost.

In a speech at a service commemorating those who served in the conflict, he said: "Many people of my generation and younger grew up doubting we should ever see another straightforward international conflict, fought by a standing army with conventional weapons. We had begun to forget the realities of cost. And when such conflict appeared on the horizon, there were those among both policymakers and commentators who were able to talk about it without really measuring the price, the cost of justice."