What is Religion? And Other Writings.

by Leo Tolstoy

'What is religion?' is a collection of articles and letters written by the mature Tolstoy of 1901 and 1902. Published originally by the Free Age Press, it features all his trademark clarity and insight. Contained here is a wide variety of subject matter, including a look at the causes of social inequality, various attacks on the church and reflections on a recent political assassination. 'How shall we escape?' opens with a brilliant rural vignette exposing the absurd inequalities of the social order. Tolstoy believes that ultimately it's the government who is to blame for such inequity; but instead of choosing the path of the revolutionary, he encourages people to look inwardly at themselves, where the power of violence and evil lie. In 'My reply to the synod' Tolstoy responds to the church's Edict of Excommunication, in which they accuse Tolstoy of being seduced by the pride of his intellect. In his reply, Tolstoy quotes Coleridge approvingly: 'He who begins by loving Christianity better than the Truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end up by loving himself better than all.' Tolstoy claims to love Truth above all things. 'Thou shalt not kill' explores how the masses have been hypnotised into believing that killing is not only acceptable, but desirable. For Tolstoy, this is the old order of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth', which Jesus' teaching had cancelled. The title piece, 'What is religion?' is the most substantial. Here Tolstoy explores the idea of religion and provides the following definition: 'True religion is the establishment by man of a relation to the infinite life around him; as long as in connecting his life with this infinitude and directing his conduct, there is also agreement with his reason and human knowledge.'

178 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.

His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't find the actual book I read listed in Goodreads. I read What is Religion and of What Does its Essence Consist. It was a small book within a bigger book that had a collection of Tolstoy's religious writings. I enjoy Tolstoy. This book wasn't his best but it's still good. He thinks and writes about important things and I like that.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This seems to be the second half of the book I just finished - and it was lovely and inspiring. A truely good read.

[AMG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harika bir kitap