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| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel in Brief Leo Tolstoy, Dustin Condren, 2011-02-15 The greatest novelist of all time retells the greatest story ever told, the life of Jesus Christ, in The Gospel in Brief—Leo Tolstoy’s riveting, novelistic integration of the four Gospels into a single, twelve-chapter narrative. Virtually unknown to English readers until now, Dustin Condren’s groundbreaking translation from the Russian opens a precious new world of Tolstoy’s masterful literary talent to fans of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel in Brief graf Leo Tolstoy, 1896 |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospels in Brief graf Leo Tolstoy, 2004 Seeking answers to the problem of life, Tolstoy reinterpreted the first four books of the New Testament to create a single, integrated version of Christ's philosophy. The Russian author disregarded issues related to Jesus's divinity, focusing strictly on his words and teachings, for a remarkably modern meditation on spirituality. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel in Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy, 2015 We know of no better introduction to the spiritual vision of one of the greatest writers of all time, Leo Tolstoy. This anthology vividly reveals - as none of his novels, novellas, short stories, plays, or essays could on its own - the great Russian novelist's fascination with the life and teachings of Jesus and the gospel themes of betrayal and forgiveness, sacrifice and redemption, death and resurrection. Drawn from War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, Master and Man, Walk in the Light, and Twenty-Three Tales, the selections are each prefaced by a contextual note. Newcomers will find in these pages a rich, accessible sampling. Tolstoy enthusiasts will be pleased to find some of the writer's deepest, most compelling passages in one volume. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel in Brief Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy, 2014-01-01 In The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) offers his retelling of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Through his poetic and moving account of the life of Jesus, we witness the power of Tolstoy's narrative range as well as the spiritual depth of these Biblical Gospels. Perhaps no novelist has been better qualified to offer his imaging of the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ. Leo Tolstoy, in his later life, became a deeply religious man, writing a prolific amount on Christian spirituality and religious mysticism. The Gospel in Brief skillfully envisions the Bible as literature, lending his singular gifts as a novelist to perhaps the most important book in all of Western Civilization. Though Tolstoy never moves far away from his original sources and his rewriting of the life of Jesus only enhances and makes more real the historical and spiritual world of Jesus. This is essential reading for students of religion as well as fans of world literature. |
| tolstoy gospels: Secular Buddhism Stephen Batchelor, 2017-01-01 An essential collection of Stephen Batchelor's most probing and important work on secular Buddhism As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream Western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition? Is there an ethical framework that can underpin and contextualize these practices in a rapidly changing world? In this collected volume of Stephen Batchelor's writings on these themes, the author explores the complex implications of Buddhism's secularization. Ranging widely--from reincarnation, religious belief, and agnosticism to the role of the arts in Buddhist practice--he offers a detailed picture of contemporary Buddhism and its attempt to find a voice in the modern world. |
| tolstoy gospels: A Confession, The Gospel in Brief, and What I Believe graf Leo Tolstoy, 1961 |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel In Brief (EasyRead Large Bold Edition) , |
| tolstoy gospels: Tolstoy's Translation of the Gospels David Matual, 1992 This is a detailed study of Tolstoy's Soedinenie i Perevod Chetyrek Evangeli (Union and Translation of the Four Gospels), a work he regarded as his finest and most important scholarly endeavour. One of the theses of this book is that Tolstoy's gospel did not lead to his religious views, but that his views gave rise to his gospels. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Incomparable Christ John Stott, 2013-07-10 From four distinct perspectives--original, ecclesiastical, influential and eternal, John Stott offers an introduction to help you understand Jesus and his ministry. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Jefferson Bible Thomas Jefferson, Wyatt North, 2014-01-05 The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was a book constructed by Thomas Jefferson in the latter years of his life by cutting and pasting numerous sections from various Bibles as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's composition excluded sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists. In 1895, the Smithsonian Institution under the leadership of librarian Cyrus Adler purchased the original Jefferson Bible from Jefferson's great-granddaughter Carolina Randolph for $400. A conservation effort commencing in 2009, in partnership with the museum's Political History department, allowed for a public unveiling in an exhibit open from November 11, 2011, through May 28, 2012, at the National Museum of American History. |
| tolstoy gospels: My Religion graf Leo Tolstoy, 1885 To one not familiar with the Russian language the accessible data relative to the external life of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi, the author of this book, are, to say the least, not voluminous. His name does not appear in that heterogeneous record of celebrities known as The Men of the Time, nor is it to be found in M. Vapereau's comprehensive Dictionnaire des Contemporains. And yet Count Leo Tolstoi is acknowledged by competent critics to be a man of extraordinary genius, who, certainly in one instance, has produced a masterpiece of literature which will continue to rank with the great artistic productions of this age. Perhaps it is enough for us to know that he was born on his father's estate in the Russian province of Tula, in the year 1828; that he received a good home education and studied the oriental languages at the University of Kasan; that he was for a time in the army, which he entered at the age of twenty-three as an officer of artillery, serving later on the staff of Prince Gortschakof; and that subsequently he alternated between St. Petersburg and Moscow, leading the existence of super-refined barbarism and excessive luxury, characteristic of the Russian aristocracy. He saw life in country and city, in camp and court. |
| tolstoy gospels: Last Steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy, 2009-10-29 1910. Anna Karenina and War and Peace have made Leo Tolstoy the world's most famous author. But fame comes at a price. In the tumultuous final year of his life, Tolstoy is desperate to find respite, so leaves his large family and the hounding press behind and heads into the wilderness. Too ill to venture beyond the tiny station of Astapovo, he believes his last days will pass in isolation. But as we learn through the journals of those closest to him, the battle for Tolstoy's soul will not be a peaceful one. Jay Parini introduces, translates and edits this collection of Tolstoy's autobiographical writing, diaries, and letters related to the last year of Tolstoy's life published to coincide with the 2009 film of Parini's novel The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Final Year. |
| tolstoy gospels: Tolstoy's Search for the Kingdom of God Javier Sethness Castro, 2025-03-11 Building on its predecessor, Queer Tolstoy: A Psychobiography (2023), this book uncovers queer-anarchist dimensions of the second half of Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy's life (1828–1910) and of the Russian writer's later art-works. It features queer-friendly readings of Anna Karenina (1875–1877), The Gospels In Brief (1881), “The Death of Ivan Ilych” (1886), “The Kreutzer Sonata,” (1889), “Master and Man” (1895), and Resurrection (1899), among other classics. However, the argument does not overlook the gross misogyny expressed by Tolstoy in either his art or his marriage with Countess Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya. Rather, the author explores the fundamental contradictions between sexism and anti-authoritarianism while critiquing Tolstoy's self-defeating commitment to patriarchy. The text also praises the writer's late turn toward preaching Christian anarchism, as it traces aspects of Tolstoy's artistic and political resonance in the twentieth century, including pacifist plant-based communes, the Russian and Mexican Revolutions, the Bloomsbury Group, the Catholic Worker, and Soviet-era hippies. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Four Gospels Harmonized and Translated by Leo Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy, 2018-10-19 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| tolstoy gospels: Tolstoy Rosamund Bartlett, 2011-11-08 This biography of the brilliant author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina “should become the first resort for everyone drawn to its titanic subject” (Booklist, starred review). In November 1910, Count Lev Tolstoy died at a remote Russian railway station. At the time of his death, he was the most famous man in Russia, more revered than the tsar, with a growing international following. Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy spent his existence rebelling against not only conventional ideas about literature and art but also traditional education, family life, organized religion, and the state. In “an epic biography that does justice to an epic figure,” Rosamund Bartlett draws extensively on key Russian sources, including fascinating material that has only become available since the collapse of the Soviet Union (Library Journal, starred review). She sheds light on Tolstoy’s remarkable journey from callow youth to writer to prophet; discusses his troubled relationship with his wife, Sonya; and vividly evokes the Russian landscapes Tolstoy so loved and the turbulent times in which he lived. |
| tolstoy gospels: Christian Anarchism Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, 2022-02-17 Christian anarchism has been around for at least as long as “secular” anarchism. Leo Tolstoy is its most famous proponent, but there are many others, such as Jacques Ellul, Vernard Eller, Dave Andrews or the people associated with the Catholic Worker movement. They offer a compelling critique of the state, the church and the economy based on the New Testament. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Four Gospels Harmonized and Translated by Leo Tolstoy graf Leo Tolstoy, 1896 |
| tolstoy gospels: A Christian Guide to the Classics Leland Ryken, 2015-08-17 Most people are familiar with the classics of Western literature, but few have actually read them. Written to equip readers for a lifetime of learning, this beginner's guide to reading the classics by renowned literary scholar Leland Ryken answers basic questions readers often have, including Why read the classics? and How do I read a classic? Offering a list of some of the best works from the last 2,000 years and time-tested tips for effectively engaging with them, this companion to Ryken's Christian Guides to the Classics series will give readers the tools they need to read, interact with, and enjoy some of history's greatest literature. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel in Brief Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, 2010-03-01 Originally published: New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1899. |
| tolstoy gospels: Tolstoy's Pacifism Colm McKeogh, 2009 Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was the most influential, challenging, and provocative pacifist of his generation. The most famous person alive at the dawn of the twentieth century, his international stature came not only from his great novels but from his rejection of violence and the state. Tolstoy was a strict pacifist in the last three decades of his life, and wrote at length on a central issue of politics, namely, the use of violence to maintain order, to promote justice, and to ensure the survival of society, civilization, and the human species. He unreservedly rejected the use of physical force to these or any ends. Tolstoy was a religious pacifist rather than an ethical or political one. His pacifism was rooted not in a moral doctrine or political theory but in his straightforward reading of the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. Despite his fame, Tolstoy's pacifism remains insufficiently studied. A hundred years after his death, Tolstoy is a figure unfamiliar in political science, encountered, if at all, as the author of hortatory quotations on the wrongness of political violence or of allegiance to the state. This work of political science offers an account of Leo Tolstoy as a Christian thinker on political violence. It presents Tolstoy's pacifism as a striking case of the impact of religious idealism on political attitudes. The Russian novelist offers an instructive case study in Christian pacifism and in the attractions and failings of strict, literalist, and simplistic religious approaches to the many and complex issues of politics. Today, the political implications of religious fundamentalism, scriptural literalism, and Christian faith are very much live issues and the contemporary discussion of them should not omit pacifism. In this first study of Tolstoy's pacifism by a political scientist, Colm McKeogh unravels the complexities of Tolstoy's writings on Christianity and political violence. This work serves scholars of political science by bringing together relevant extracts from Tolstoy's writings and providing a succinct treatment of the core political issues. It establishes that Tolstoy's stance is primarily one of non-violence rather than non-resistance. McKeogh's work then assesses the internal consistency of Tolstoy's pacifism, its grounding in the Gospels and Christian tradition, its political and anti-political implications, and the meaning in life that it offers. It finds that Tolstoy does great service to the pacifist cause (with his defense of peace as close to the centre of Christ's message) and yet harm to it too (by divorcing peace from the love that is even more central to Christ's message). Tolstoy's political and religious legacy is not that of a prophet, a social activist, a moral reformer, a political idealist or pacifist theorist but that of a dissident. Tolstoy stands as one of the great dissidents of twentieth-century Russia, a man who condemned the system utterly and who refused to perform any act that could be construed as compromising with it. He left behind a powerful statement of the urgent human need to connect our daily living to a deep and fulfilling conception of the meaning of life. Tolstoy's Pacifism is important for political science, Christian ethics, literature, and Russian collections. |
| tolstoy gospels: Leo Tolstoy Daniel Moulin, 2014-10-23 How do we know what we should teach? And how should we go about teaching it? These deceptively simple questions about education perplexed Tolstoy. Before writing his famous novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy opened an experimental school on his estate to try and answer them. His experiences there incited his life-long inquiry into the meaning and purpose of religion, literature, art and life itself. In this text, Daniel Moulin tells the story of the course of Tolstoy's educational thought, and how it relates to Tolstoy's fiction and other writings. It begins with his experience of being a child and adolescent, incorporates his travels in Europe, the experimental school, his literature, and his views on art, philosophy, and spirituality. Throughout, the relevance and impact of Tolstoy's thinking on education are translated into applicable theory for today's education students. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Easter Story , 1999-03-15 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethpage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples ... (more). |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel According to Tolstoy graf Leo Tolstoy, 1992 ' From 1879 until his death in 1910, Tolstoy embarked on a spiritual journey, a search for God and the nature of truth, that became the dominant theme of his life and subsequent writings...' - Publisher. |
| tolstoy gospels: Bethink Yourselves! Leo Tolstoy, 2023-01-12 Bethink yourselves! Or, in more modern parlance: Wake up! Get a grip! Leo Tolstoy, known for the epic 'War and Peace', is far more blunt in this book. The Russian novelist and philosopher wrote 'Bethink Yourselves!' to protest the Russo-Japanese war and call for people and nations to embrace pacifism and non-violence. The message was prescient - but the 20th century turned into the most devastating 100 years in human history, including both the First and Second World War. Using the words of Jesus as his inspiration, Tolstoy puts together a passionate and compelling case for the way of peace. When written by one of the men who inspired Mahatma Gandhi's commitment to nonviolent revolution in India, it gains authority. And well over 100 years on, with conflicts continually breaking out up to today, Tolstoy's words have a power that transcends time. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world’s greatest novelists. Tolstoy’s major works include 'War and Peace' (1865–69) and 'Anna Karenina' (1875–77), two of the greatest novels of all time and pinnacles of realist fiction. Beyond novels, he wrote many short stories and later in life also essays and plays. In the years following the publication of 'War and Peace' Tolstoy - who was born to a Russian aristocratic family - had a spiritual awakening that made him a committed Christian anarchist and pacifist. His philosophy inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Gospel According to the Son Norman Mailer, 2013-09-17 Norman Mailer fused fact and fiction to create indelible portraits of such figures as Marilyn Monroe, Gary Gilmore, and Lee Harvey Oswald. In The Gospel According to the Son, Mailer reimagines, as no other modern author has, the key character of Western history. Here is Jesus Christ’s story in his own words: the discovery of his divinity and the painful, powerful journey to accepting and expressing it, “as if I were a man enclosing another man within.” In its brevity and piercing simplicity, it may be Mailer’s most accessible, direct, and heartfelt work. Praise for The Gospel According to the Son “Quietly penetrating . . . [Norman Mailer’s] gospel is written in a direct, rather relaxed English that yet has an eerie, neo-Biblical dignity.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “A book of considerable intellectual force . . . The writer’s powerful mind works in a specialized way, not by theological argumentation but by telling or retelling a story.”—The New York Review of Books “Challenges readers on the religious right and the atheist left with equally rich interpretive tasks.”—The Dallas Morning News “An informed and believable work of fiction . . . of what may have been going through the mind of Jesus during his epic ministry.”—San Francisco Chronicle Praise for Norman Mailer “[Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.”—The New York Times “A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent.”—The New Yorker “Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure.”—The Washington Post “A devastatingly alive and original creative mind.”—Life “Mailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance.”—The New York Review of Books “The largest mind and imagination [in modern] American literature . . . Unlike just about every American writer since Henry James, Mailer has managed to grow and become richer in wisdom with each new book.”—Chicago Tribune “Mailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream.”—The Cincinnati Post |
| tolstoy gospels: What I Believe Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, 2009-01-01 i Full Title 9781605208114_INTF ii Copyright 9781605208114_INTF iii Quote 9781605208114_INTF iv Blank(s) 9781605208114_INTF v - 236 Text 9781605208114_INTM, from CD to come 237 Cosimo Ad 9781605208114_INTB 238 Blank(s) 9781605208114_INTB |
| tolstoy gospels: Church and State Л.Н. Толстой, 1891 Church and State and Other Essays: Including Money; Man and Woman: Their Respective Functions; the Mother; a Second Supplement to the Kreutzer Sonata. |
| tolstoy gospels: Drawn to the Gospels Jay Sidebotham, 2020-07-17 Each week brings a lighthearted opportunity to remember that humor and the gospel are not mutually exclusive. The Drawn to the Gospels series covers all of the Sundays in the lectionary year, as well as special days such as Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, and Ascension Day. Each entry contains a cartoon illustration of the gospel, a short paragraph of introduction, and some engaging questions. The cartoons are scaled so they can be reproduced for bulletins, inserts, or even posters, bringing weekly gospel readings to life. These amusing and original reflections deepen scriptural literacy and engagement among members of the Episcopal Church, including youth groups, and will inspire some fun in the process. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy (Graf), 2015-12-07 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Life of Our Lord Charles Dickens, 2013-01-22 Charles Dickens's other Christmas classic, with a new introduction by Dickens's great-great-grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord during the years 1846-1849, just about the time he was completing David Copperfield. In this charming, simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke, Dickens hoped to teach his young children about religion and faith. Since he wrote it exclusively for his children, Dickens refused to allow publication. For eighty-five years the manuscript was guarded as a precious family secret, and it was handed down from one relative to the next. When Dickens died in 1870, it was left to his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth. From there it fell to Dickens's son, Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, with the admonition that it should not be published while any child of Dickens lived. Just before the 1933 holidays, Sir Henry, then the only living child of Dickens, died, leaving his father's manuscript to his wife and children. He also bequeathed to them the right to make the decision to publish The Life of Our Lord. By majority vote, Sir Henry's widow and children decided to publish the book in London. In 1934, Simon & Schuster published the first American edition, which became one of the year's biggest bestsellers. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Four Gospels Harmonised and Translated Leo Tolstoy, 2019-02-22 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| tolstoy gospels: Gospel harmony Valeriy Sterkh, 2022-05-15 Why are there four canonical Gospels? Who wrote them and when? Was there a «Q source»? Are there errors in the Gospels? Do the Gospels contradict each other? Can we compile a coherent narrative based on all the four Gospels? This book attempts to answer these questions. |
| tolstoy gospels: Wittgenstein’s Secret Diaries Dinda L. Gorlée, 2020-02-06 Ludwig Wittgenstein's works encompass a huge number of published philosophical manuscripts, notebooks, lectures, remarks, and responses, as well as his unpublished private diaries. The diaries were written mainly in coded script to interpolate his writings on the philosophy of language with autobiographic passages, but were previously unknown to the public and impossible to decode without learning the coding system. This book deciphers the cryptography of the diary entries to examine what Wittgenstein's personal idiom reveals about his public and private identities. Employing the semiotic doctrine of Charles S. Peirce, Dinda L. Gorlée argues that the style of writing reflects the variety of Wittgenstein's emotional moods, which were profoundly affected by his medical symptoms. Bringing Peirce's reasoning of abduction together with induction and deduction, the book investigates how the semiosis of the emotional, energetic, and logical interpretations of signs and objects reveal Wittgenstein's psychological states in the coded diaries. |
| tolstoy gospels: Anarchy and Christianity Jacques Ellul, 2011-05-18 Jacque Ellul blends politics, theology, history, and exposition in this analysis of the relationship between political anarchy and biblical faith. While he clarifies the views of each and how they can be related, his aim is not to proselytize either anarchists into Christianity or Christians into anarchy. On the one hand, suggests Ellul, anarchists need to understand that much of their criticism of Christianity applies only to the form of religion that developed, not to biblical faith. Christians, on the other hand, need to look at the biblical texts and not reject anarchy as a political option, for it seems closest to biblical thinking. After charting the background of his own interest in the subject, Ellul defines what he means by anarchy: the nonviolent repudiation of authority. He goes on to look at the Bible as the source of anarchy (in the sense of nondomination, not disorder), working through Old Testament history, Jesus' ministry, and finally the early church's view of power as reflected in the New Testament writings. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Little Gospel graf Leo Tolstoy, 1987 This book is not just a story told by one of the world's greatest storytellers. The real story here is Leo Tolstoy's stubborn insistence on uncovering what was said and what happened. It wasn't the first time that Tolstoy stood alone. In writing this book he attacks Christ-centered churches for their one big lie-the claim that the Bible, the whole Bible, is sacred. This claim has led Christians ever since in the wrong direction, and he describes why. The Russian Orthodox Church responded by excommunicating Tolstoy. A hundred years have passed since Tolstoy produced this little book. Christian churches still abound, each basing itself on a truth that denies truth to other churches and sects. Tolstoy did not limit his accusation to the Russian Orthodox Church, though, as a Russian, he naturally focuses on its peculiarities in his preface. Tolstoy's synoptic Gospel was a bombshell when it was written. The book was banned in Russia even before publication; consequently its first edition was printed in Switzerland by an exile Russian press, in an incomplete version. Translations aplenty followed-but in Russia itself, this book was not officially available. Tolstoy himself was not surprised at the book banning. In his study of the Christian tradition, Tolstoy had found that religion was indeed alive, but not in the churches. It was alive in the fields, in the faith of the common people, the serfs and peasants of Russia. And it was for them that Count Leo Tolstoy abandoned writing his great novels to uncover the truth of Jesus' teaching, as much as may now be known of it from the generally accepted gospel accounts. His method was simple: Throw out the garbage. That meant specifically the parts that have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus' teaching-all the miracle stories that had been added to win over the doubtful, all the interpretations of one point of view or another that were added later-especially those of Paul-and any suggestion of a resurrection. One churchly principle that Tolstoy demolished was the idea that most of the books of ''the Bible had anything to do with Jesus, other than to justify after the fact an old Jewish prophetic tradition namely, Messiahship- that Jesus himself did not consider important. Especially noxious to Tolstoy was the notion that the Bible was sacred, the Word of God. In the course of history, great wrongs have been committed in the name of Christianity, based on one or another passage found in the Bible, a book which, after all, tells the stories of a thousand years of the ethical development of a barbarous people. In Tolstoy's view this Bible-holiness is simply a perversion. Tolstoy's uncompromising mind brought him to conclusions not shared by the great majority of his fellows; this in no way distracted him, but rather deepened his commitment toward humanity. Struggling in the same social ferment of injustice in Russia that gave rise to Nihilism, Anarchism, and Communism, Tolstoy and Tolstoyan Christians worked to solve social problems with a religious answer. History took a different turn, but the influence of Tolstoy in the last years of his life was enormous and worldwide. In this translation I have relied throughout on the Soviet Complete Written Works of Tolstoy, Volume 24, published in Moscow during Khrushchev's Thaw period in 1957 under the auspices of the State Editorial Commission. This book of Tolstoy's is a great humanist document, in which an uncompromising mind brings freshness to a great human teaching. |
| tolstoy gospels: The Person of Christ Stephen J. Wellum, 2021-01-15 From beginning to end, Scripture unveils from shadow to reality that Jesus is God the Son incarnate. Some people think of Jesus as a great prophet or a wise philosopher; others see him as an important religious leader or even a revolutionary. In this addition to the Short Studies in Systematic Theology series, Stephen Wellum challenges these claims as he argues for the divinity of Jesus according to Scripture and in line with creedal Christianity. In this brief introduction, we are invited to rejoice in the centrality of Christ—who as both God and man reconciles us to God. |
| tolstoy gospels: Literature ... , 1902 |
Leo Tolstoy - Wikipedia
Born to an aristocratic family, Tolstoy achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood and Youth (1852–1856), and with Sevastopol …
Leo Tolstoy | Books, Cause of Death, Born, War and Peace, Anna …
Jun 4, 2025 · Leo Tolstoy (born August 28 [September 9, New Style], 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire—died November 7 [November 20], 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan …
5 Things You May Not Know About Leo Tolstoy - HISTORY
Jan 15, 2016 · Check out five surprising facts about the author of 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina.' 1. Tolstoy was a self-improvement junkie. Inspired in part by the 13 virtues …
Leo Tolstoy - Books, Quotes & War and Peace - Biography
Sep 9, 2014 · Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote the acclaimed novels 'War and Peace,' 'Anna Karenina' and 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich,' and ranks among the world's top writers.
Biography - Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy – Russian writer and thinker, participated in the defense of Sevastopol, was engaged in educational and journalistic activities. He was at the origins of Tolstoyism, a new religious …
An Introduction to the Life and Works of Leo Tolstoy
Apr 4, 2023 · Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time. Born in 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, Tolstoy grew up in a wealthy aristocratic …
Leo Tolstoy - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910) was a Russian novelist and anarchist, famous for writing the books War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and many …
Leo Tolstoy - Biography and Literary Works of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy is considered one of the greatest authors of Russian literature who started writing at a young age and touched pinnacles of success in his life. Among his best novels and novellas …
Leo Tolstoy: Biography
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, known in English as Leo Tolstoy, was born on September 9, 1828, at the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, located in the Tula Province of Russia. He hailed from a …
Leo Tolstoy bibliography - Wikipedia
This is a list of works by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), including his novels, novellas, short stories, fables and parables, plays, and nonfiction.
Leo Tolstoy - Wikipedia
Born to an aristocratic family, Tolstoy achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood and Youth (1852–1856), and with Sevastopol …
Leo Tolstoy | Books, Cause of Death, Born, War and Peace, …
Jun 4, 2025 · Leo Tolstoy (born August 28 [September 9, New Style], 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire—died November 7 [November 20], 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan …
5 Things You May Not Know About Leo Tolstoy - HISTORY
Jan 15, 2016 · Check out five surprising facts about the author of 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina.' 1. Tolstoy was a self-improvement junkie. Inspired in part by the 13 virtues …
Leo Tolstoy - Books, Quotes & War and Peace - Biography
Sep 9, 2014 · Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote the acclaimed novels 'War and Peace,' 'Anna Karenina' and 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich,' and ranks among the world's top writers.
Biography - Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy – Russian writer and thinker, participated in the defense of Sevastopol, was engaged in educational and journalistic activities. He was at the origins of Tolstoyism, a new religious …
An Introduction to the Life and Works of Leo Tolstoy
Apr 4, 2023 · Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time. Born in 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, Tolstoy grew up in a wealthy aristocratic …
Leo Tolstoy - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910) was a Russian novelist and anarchist, famous for writing the books War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and many …
Leo Tolstoy - Biography and Literary Works of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy is considered one of the greatest authors of Russian literature who started writing at a young age and touched pinnacles of success in his life. Among his best novels and novellas …
Leo Tolstoy: Biography
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, known in English as Leo Tolstoy, was born on September 9, 1828, at the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, located in the Tula Province of Russia. He hailed from a …
Leo Tolstoy bibliography - Wikipedia
This is a list of works by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), including his novels, novellas, short stories, fables and parables, plays, and nonfiction.
