The Kingdom of God Is Within You. Christianity and Patriotism. Miscellanies

Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.5
Word count
956K words
Chapters
96

Tags

English Originals Religion Political AllegoryLife PhilosophyCivic AwarenessPatriotismSpiritual PracticeIntellectual EnlightenmentWestern ThoughtMoral CultivationIntellectual Commentary

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / MiscellaniesAuthor: Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910,Language: English, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Aug 1, 2013

Editor's review

This collection presents the late Tolstoy's thought: The Kingdom of God Is Within You sets out a systematic ethics of resisting evil by nonviolence, refusing military service, and taking no part in state violence; Christianity and Patriotism directs its critique at nationalism and the fusion of church and nation; the miscellanies touch on society, religion, art, and related questions. For Chinese readers its value lies less in literary technique than in offering a thoroughgoing way of rethinking the state, violence, and individual conscience. Tolstoy's arguments carry a strong tone of moral appeal, are plain in style and repetitive, and may read as preachy, but precisely for that reason his position is clear. It fits within the reading contexts of intellectual history, religious ethics, and pacifism; read against texts by Thoreau, Gandhi, and others, the lines of influence become more evident. Readers should keep in mind the religious context of nineteenth-century Russia and Tolstoy's own replies to controversies such as his excommunication.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read The Kingdom of God Is Within You first, then Christianity and Patriotism, and finally browse the miscellanies; the thread is clearer that way.
  2. After each chapter, note the author's core claim and mode of argument in a sentence or two for later review.
  3. Read alongside Thoreau's Civil Disobedience to observe how nonviolent thought differs across contexts.
  4. In passages dense with religious terms, grasp the conclusion first, then return to the argument, so as not to give up midway.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96

FAQ

Is this book a novel? No. It is a collection of Tolstoy's late essays and miscellanies on religious ethics, state violence, and critiques of patriotism—discursive writing, not narrative literature.
Can I understand it without a religious background? You can, but patience is needed. The book quotes the Gospels extensively and discusses Russian Orthodox contexts; grasp the core claim first—resist evil by nonviolence and refuse to take part in state violence—then work through the theological arguments.
Why do the same views recur throughout? Tolstoy's essay style tends toward moral exhortation, restating the same position from different angles. This is both the source of its force and a reason readers who want tight argument may find it repetitive; focus on what each chapter adds.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910 Author

Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910) is a highly important writer in the history of Russian literature. Public information about his nationality and exact dates of birth and death is limited; the library records only his name, the number of his works, and representative titles. The library holds 81 of his works, with representative titles including Anna Karenina and War and Peace (Sota ja rauha). These titles show that he excelled at presenting characters' fates and inner conflicts against broad social panoramas, with calm narration and a reflective quality, while questions of family, morality, and the course of history run throughout. His works have been translated into many languages and have a lasting readership and wide influence.