Discuss the main political and religious influences on Tolstoy's writing.
Tolstoy's importance to the development of Christian political thought cannot be overestimated. His writings both narrate and helped shape the political and religious landscape of late 19th Century Russia, and his influence is felt well into the 20th and 21st centuries. His contribution to Christian Pacifism and Christian Anarchism is vast, drawing together and developing thoughts on non-violence, civil disobedience and the relationship between Christians and state authority, as well as constructing a theology of Christianity “not as a mystic religion, but as a new theory of life”[1]. Tolstoy’s politico-religious opus, The Kingdom of God is Within You, has become a manifesto for Christian Anarchism, laying out as it does, not only the principles of Christian Anarchism, but also a robust and comprehensive defence against its critics.
This paper offers a brief exploration of the world into which this polymath spoke- the moods and movements that influenced him, the thinkers he engaged with, and the world that shaped his thinking. The first section outlines the political environment of the time and the integral influence that the feudal system would have on his thinking. The second section gives an overview of how his religious experiences were shaped by the interaction between Orthodox Christianity and Enlightenment Philosophy. The final two sections deal with Tolstoy’s objection to Church-State relations and the various influences that shaped his ‘New Religion.
The Political Landscape
Tolstoy lived through an era punctuated by political upheaval. The failed Decemberist Revolt three years before his birth marks the beginning of the revolutionary era. Though the tsarist regime would continue for another ninety-two years, Tolstoy’s world was flavoured by war, revolt, rebellion and uprising – challenges to the establishment military, political, religious and philosophical. Tolstoy entered fully into this fray of critics and protest movements, at first through his literary works, later more directly through his philosophical writing, and eventually by his choice to disavow his privileged position and adopt an ascetic lifestyle.
Tolstoy lived his life between two worlds- the privileged life of the aristocratic intellectual and the simple, hardworking life of the serfs and peasants that he so admired. The dissonance that he felt as a result of his proximity to the life of the serfs is evidenced in his earliest fiction- autobiographical novels depicting a wealthy youth’s realisation of the difference between his own life and that of the peasants[2]. It is this dissonance that inspired his work as an educational reformer. In 1856, five years before official emancipation, Tolstoy attempted to free the serfs working on his land[3]. He was unsuccesful, the peasants reckoning the offer a trick, and instead he set about establishing education for the children of serfs. Throughout his life and work, it was this inequality that moved him to question the status quo and to eventually suggest anarchist solutions. Indeed, guilt at his own part in the oppression of the serfs, and at what he saw as a wild and wasteful youth, gave rise to his eventual asceticism.
Religion
The religious landscape of late 19th Centruy Russia mirrored the political one. There was a single autocratic edifice - the Orthodox Church - and any number of ultimately ineffectual dissenters. Notable groups to exist outside the auspices of orthodoxy were the Old Believers (the result of a 17th Century break over dogmatic and liturgical minutiae[4]), and the various sects of so-called ‘spiritual Christianity[5]’ (one of which, the Doukhobors, would influence Tolstoy’s interpretation of Christian Pacifism).
Tolstoy's 'religious' journey is well documented in his diaries and confessions. He describes a pattern of loss of faith “usual among people on our level of education[6]”. An infant belief in God absorbed from parents and adults, gradually disillusioned by the age of university attendance by attrition from reason and a realisation that “religious doctrine does not play a part in life”[7]. In this movement we can see the clear cultural influence of french Enlightenment thinkers. “Voltaire’s influence on the educated members of the Russian aristocracy was emmense”[8] writes E.B. Greenwood. However, Tolstoy does not adopt the ‘well-ordered’ Deism that he encountered reading Voltaire in his youth. Indeed, the character of Prince Bolkonosky in War and Peace parodies the kind of man Tolstoy could have become under the Enlightenment influence. He criticises this stance by contrasting Bolkonosky’s upright, orderly, aristocratic Deism with his daughter Mary’s ‘religion of the heart’ - a position much more reflective of the Doukhobors and other sects of ‘spiritual Christianity’.
"I ceased to go out shooting with a gun lest I should be tempted by so easy a way of ending my life"
It was an existential crisis in later life that led Tolstoy to search for meaning in religion:
My life came to a standstill... the truth was that life is meaningless. And it was then that I, a man favoured by fortune, hid a cord from myself lest I should hang myself... and I ceased to go out shooting with a gun lest I should be tempted by so easy a way of ending my life.[9]
This “condition of despair”[10] sparked peronal and philosophical questions:
Though I was quite convinced of the impossibility of proving the existence of a Deity (Kant had shown, and I quite understood him, that it could not be proved), I yet sought for god, hoped that I should find Him, and from old habit addressed prayers to that which I sought but had not found.[11]
It is interesting that, while Tolstoy leans heavily on Enlightenment philosophy to shape his thinking about God and the meaning of life, he eventually returns to the Orthodox faith of his childhood to provide a language and moral framework[12].
The work of Rousseau against the Hegelian criticism of religion allowed Tolstoy to give intellectual assent to Christianity. [13] Rousseau’s thought aligned itself with the ‘religion of the heart’, and made it intellectually viable for Tolstoy to see religion, not merely as a social or psychological construct, but as a legitimate worldview.
The Christian faith that Tolstoy did eventually adopt was far removed from the Orthodox expression that he had grown up with and that his world was saturated by. The disinterest or disillusionment of youth now became open criticism of the Church, as Tolstoy’s own religious convictions grew stronger.
Church and State
In returning to Christianity, Tolstoy found that there was much he could not accept. Investigating orthodox teaching uncovered “blasphemous and shocking propositions, not merely incompatible with reason, but quite incomprehensible and contrary to morality”[14]. He concluded that the faith of the Orthodox Church was “not only false, but an immoral depiction.”[15] Tolstoy’s Christianity would be quite different.
Tolstoy’s rejection of Orthodoxy rasies a number of questions. Tolstoy scholars discuss “the Complex question of whether Tolstoy’s attack on dogmatic theology is really, as W.M. Urban has argued, an undermining of religion itself.”[16] It is clear that his rejection of the supernatural elements of Orthodox Christianity is not an expression of philosophical materialism. Rather, it is an expression of dissatisfation with the Church authority, which Tolstoy began to see as inextricably aligned with an oppressive imperial state. Marx made his famous 'opiate of the masses' comment in 1843[17], now Tolstoy criticised the Orthodox priests as peddlers of mysticism – constructing a counterfeit religion to obscure the truth of Christ’s teaching. The Church was guilty of “eighteen hundred years of false interpretation”[18], the epistles were rejected along with Church authority as:“very contradictory writings into which Christ’s teaching enters only to a small degree.”[19] Tolstoy answer to critics of Christianity: “Christ cannot be held responsible for the monstrous tradition that has been interwoven with his teaching and presented as Christianity.”[20]
In reading the Gospels, Tolstoy was presented with Christ - a peasant - who spoke out against military authority; who taught both other peasants and the ruling classes another way to live. This Christ belonged amongst the radicals and revolutionaries far more than in the staid, authoritarian and imperious Church.
"This Christ belonged amongst the radicals and revolutionaries far more than in the staid, authoritarian and imperious Church."
Without question, it was Christ’s teaching of non-violence that fascinated Tolstoy the most. It was a teaching so at odds with his own experience of the Church and ‘Christian’ behaviour that he became quite fixated by the contradiction. His writings on the subject would lead him into open conflict with the Church. For Tolstoy, accepting this teaching of Christ represented not only the ‘meaning’ that he had sought, but also the means to bring an end to authoritarian regimes.
He began to write widely on the relationship between Christianity and power. His arguments were solid, but one-sided:“It is absurd to even speak of Christians ruling”[21]; “The acceptance of Christianity without the abandonment of power is a satire on and perversion of Christianity”[22]; “The sanctification of political power by Christianity is blasphemy; it is the negation of Christianity”[23]. Here we see the direct influence of Helchitsky, who wrote similarly: “Rulers, emperors, popes, kings, who have not renounced power, and instead of true Christianity have put on simply a mask of it.[24]”
"he questioned how earnest Christians could be blind to the incongruity of violence."
The main focus of his criticism was the Church’s involvement with the military. Drawing on his own experience serving in the Crimean war, he questioned how earnest Christians could be blind to the incongruity of violence. The Kingdom of God is Within You deals with the issue at length and features a number of stories of military conscription. The height of hypocrisy was the role of the Orthodox priests in administering the military oath and in convincing any conscentious objectors of the compatability of Christianity and military service. Tolstoy characterises “the ‘reverend father’ come to administer the oath... opens the very Gospel in which swearing is forbidden, takes the cross, the very cross on which Christ was crucified... and puts them on the lectern”[25], concluding “not without good reason was Christ’s only harsh and threatening reproof directed against hypocrites and hypocrisy.[26]” Tolstoy’s criticism of the Church in Resurrection lead to an arguably belated excommunication in 1901.
A New Religion
Yesterday a conversation about Divinity and Faith suggested to me a great, a stupendous iea to the realisation of which I feel capable of devoting my life. That idea is the founding of a new religion corresponding to the present development of mankind; the religion of Christ but purged of dogmas and mysticism – a practical religion, not promising future bliss but giving bliss on earth.[27]
Tolstoy is inconsistent on whether he saw the faith he adopted as a true expression of Christianity, or a ‘new’ faith that he had in some way created[28]. His attitude pendulums from awe and humbleness before the teachings of Christ to no small degree of arrogance, evidenced in The Gospel in Brief where he offers those few educated readers who still hold to orthodoxy the chance to “accept the new teaching or to retain his own belief”[29]. Tolstoy went as far as to rewrite the gospels, purging them of dogma as he saw fit.
Although Tolstoy pursued a Christian teaching purged of the errant commentary of tradition, his own interpretation of Christ’s teaching was, unavoidably, influenced by the other philosophers and movements that held his attention. Greenwood describes “Tolstoy’s oscillation between Homer and Jesus, Hebraism and Hellenism”[30]. In particular, his asceticism, more influenced by Schopenhauer than by Christ, coloured his reading of the Gospel.
In The Kingdom of God is Within You we see a presentation of Christianity “not as a mystic religion, but as a new theory of life[31]” rooted in Rousseau’s ‘immanentism’[32] and heavily influenced by Ballou's unitarian “Practical Christianity”, the Quakers and the Doukhobors[33]. Ballou is of particular note as, unusually, Tolstoy presents no criticism or modification of his ideas. There is a sense of immediacy and urgency as he reproduces large sections of Ballou’s material in the early pages. He presents Ballou’s writings on non-resistance as his creed, (clearly aware at this stage that this interpretation of Christianity is not his unique invention). The Kingdom of God is Within You progresses from Ballou’s foundation.
Conclusion
Tolstoy was very much a product of his time. The policial and religious climate were arguably more a catalyst for his writing then with any other writer. A synthesiser of ideas, as well as an original thinker, it would be difficult to trace every strand of philosophy that Tolstoy weaves together.
"Tolstoy’s ‘new religion’ is nothing if not reactionary"
To some degree, Tolstoy fails in his attempt to present a pure form of Christian teaching. Certainly, he removes all elements of the dogmatic and the ritual, but replaces them with his own. Tolstoy’s ‘new religion’ is nothing if not reactionary, and so the influences of Ballou and others pale in comparison to the influence of the Orthodox Church.
[1] Leo Tolstoy. The Kingdom of God is Within You. Translated by Constance Garnet. Kansas: Digireads, 2005.
[2] Childhood, Boyhood, Youth. 1852.
[3] An event mirrored by Pierre Bezhukov in War and Peace.
[4] More precisely, this was a power dispute involving the heavy-handed enforcement of reforms by Patriarch Nikon.
[5] Doukhobors, Skoptsy, Ikonobortsy, Kylysts and Molokans.
[6] Leo Tolstoy. ‘A Confession’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 45.
[7] Leo Tolstoy. ‘A Confession’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 45.
[8] E.B. Greenwood ‘Tolstoy and religion’ in Malcolm Jones, ed. New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1978. pg 152.
[9] Leo Tolstoy. Confession. Translated by David Patterson. http://classicauthors.net/Tolstoy/confession/
Accessed 24/2/10
[10] Leo Tolstoy. Confession. Translated by David Patterson. http://classicauthors.net/Tolstoy/confession/
Accessed 24/2/10
[11] Leo Tolstoy. Confession. Translated by David Patterson. http://classicauthors.net/Tolstoy/confession/
Accessed 24/2/10
[12] Tolstoy discusses studying ‘Buddhism and Mohammedanism’ in his search for meaning, stating “ I was now ready to accept any faith if only it did not demand of me a direct denial of reason” Leo Tolstoy. Confession. Translated by David Patterson. http://classicauthors.net/Tolstoy/confession/
Accessed 24/2/10
[13] “Rousseau’s thought enabled Tolstoy to overcome the undermining of religious and ethical commitments... that all such commitments are historically conditioned.” E.B. Greenwood ‘Tolstoy and religion’ in Malcolm Jones, ed. New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1978. pg 149.
[14] Leo Tolstoy ‘Church and State’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 59.
[15] Leo Tolstoy ‘Church and State’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 59.
[16] E.B. Greenwood ‘Tolstoy and religion’ in Malcolm Jones, ed. New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1978. pg 149. citing Wilbur Marshall Urban, Humanity and Deity (London, 1951) pp. 143-57
[17] Quoting Marquis de Sade
[18] Leo Tolstoy ‘The Gospel in Brief’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 64.
[19] Leo Tolstoy ‘The Gospel in Brief’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 64.
[20] Leo Tolstoy ‘The Gospel in Brief’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 68.
[21] Leo Tolstoy. The Kingdom of God is Within You. Translated by Constance Garnet. Kansas: Digireads, 2005. pg 128.
[22] Leo Tolstoy ‘Church and State’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 49.
[23] Leo Tolstoy ‘Church and State’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 49.
[24] Helchitsky inTolstoy, Leo. The Kingdom of God is Within You. Translated by Constance Garnet. Kansas: Digireads, 2005. pg 15.
[25] Leo Tolstoy. The Kingdom of God is Within You. Translated by Constance Garnet. Kansas: Digireads, 2005. pg 161.
[26] Leo Tolstoy. The Kingdom of God is Within You. Translated by Constance Garnet. Kansas: Digireads, 2005. pg 177.
[27] Leo Tolstoy Private Diary 1853-1857. Translated by Aylmer Maude. London, 1927. p. 114 cited in E.B. Greenwood ‘Tolstoy and religion’ in Malcolm Jones, ed. New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1978. pg 155.
[28] Greenwood asserts that, unlike Renan et al. “Tolstoy, like Rousseau, did not want to found a new religion... but to retain and purify it.” E.B. Greenwood ‘Tolstoy and religion’ in Malcolm Jones, ed. New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1978. pg 152.
[29] Leo Tolstoy ‘The Gospel in Brief’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 68.
[30] E.B. Greenwood ‘Tolstoy and religion’ in Malcolm Jones, ed. New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1978. pg 155.
[31] Leo Tolstoy. The Kingdom of God is Within You. Translated by Constance Garnet. Kansas: Digireads, 2005.
[32] “Another aspect of Rosseau’s thought which deeply influenced Tolstoy was its ‘immanentism’, its concern with the solution of problems as they present themselves in this world.” E.B. Greenwood ‘Tolstoy and religion’ in Malcolm Jones, ed. New Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1978. pg 152.
[33] Tolstoy has an interesting relationship with the Doukhobors. Their beliefs are almost entirely congruent with his own, and yet he does not join them. This could be because of their seperate social identity. It is also of note that Tolstoy criticised them in a list of Christian groups that considered themselves the only true Church. Leo Tolstoy ‘An Examination of the Gospels’ in W. Gareth Jones, ed. I Cannot Be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Bristol Press, 1989. pg 60.
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