Considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is a timeless favorite, loved and studied today as much as it was 50 years ago . The novel's multiple interpretations and the author's deep nuances have attracted the attention of scholars and students. Among the novel's main characters are Dr. Woland and his gang, who are representations of Satan or satanic figures, and follow the mischief they concoct around Moscow. Naturally, the inclusion of Satan as a main character who kills and seems determined to drive people crazy can seem quite heretical from the outside, I might agree. But regarding the claim that "The Master and Margarita is the most heretical novel of the 20th century", I would support that claim and instead argue that the book celebrates spirituality and free thought, more specifically in the context of Christianity, in because of the book's status as a satire of an atheist Russia and because Bulgakov does not present the book in an anti-Christian manner. One explanation for Bulgakov's heresy in The Master and Margarita is that he chose the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yeshua Ha-Nostri, as the character in the Master's novel instead of using Jesus Christ. This would have been done to focus on the humanity of Jesus and ignore any sort of divine depiction of Jesus, perhaps as part of a broader insult. I totally disagree with this statement. Understanding the context in which the book was written might help to understand Bulgakov's intentions in doing so. The book was written as a satire of the Russian communist regime and more broadly to satirize life in Russia under communist political and economic control in the first...... middle of article...... s of real historical events. But Bulgakov spends a lot of time recounting the trial of Jesus in a historically realistic way, and I think that says a lot about Bulgakov and his intentions. Would a heretic spend time leafing through the Bible and piecing together plausible events in order to construct a historical narrative? And instead of using important religious figures as plot devices in The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov instead implements fantasy, fictional, and even absurd elements and characters into the novel. While this could be taken as a mockery or taken as an insult, I prefer to entrust it to creative writing rather than seething religious criticism. In summary, The Master and Margarita would appear more as an attempt by Bulgakov to maintain Christianity as a relevant part of our culture rather than as an opposition to it..