The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

by Leo Tolstoy

The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays is one of Tolstoy's most acclaimed works, published at a time when the great writer's precepts were unacceptable to the Church, the State, the military and even the society to which he belonged. These essays are, in essence, messages of peace, denouncing war and protesting against the curtailing of free speech, press and religion at a time when liberty was ignored by world leaders. A great work of literature in their own right, they reveal Tolstoy's consummate skill as an artist, as well as his moral stature, courage and faith. The world has changed greatly since the first publication of these essays, but their meaning continues to be relevant in a world that is still caught in the midst of strife and conflict.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

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

[Sean Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed my life when I first read The Kingdom of God is Within You. Tolstoy's strips off Christianity's mystical veil and showcases the religion as an understanding of life, through the teachings of Jesus. Must've baffled and angered Christian nations when released in 1894, but it's even more relevant today. The Church—whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox—is a horrifying concept that's provided political and social power over the masses for so many centuries and Tolstoy strips it bare and proves the ineffectiveness of the Church, their doctrines, icons, relics and objects. Tolstoy makes complete logical sense in my mind, and this is a book I will cherish for the rest of my life.

“In affirming my belief in Christ's teaching, I could not help explaining why I do not believe, and consider as mistaken, the Church's doctrine, which is usually called Christianity.”

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book on my own in college before I had read very much of the bible. I did know Gandhi and his recommendation led me to this collection of Tolstoy's writings about pacifism. Unfortunately, my ignorance of the Christian tradition and Tolstoy's reliance on proof-texting left me unimpressed. What I was looking for were compelling ethical arguments for pacisism, not appeals to traditional authorities or my personal sentiments.

[Estelle Smith]

Ive learned how organised religion manipulates and destroys in order to have power over people