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Anarchy and Christianity: Two essays on Christian Anarchism: 'On Anarchy' and 'The Kingdom Of God Is Within You'
The Kingdom of God Is Within You [Tsarstvo Bozhiye vnutri vas]) and On Anarchy by Leo Tolstoy are philosophical treatises on the organization for society based on a literal Christian interpretation of the New Testament. The former first appeared in Germany in 1894, after being banned in his home country of Russia; the latter essay was written in 1900.
The title, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, is taken from Luke 17:21. In it Tolstoy speaks of the principle of nonviolent resistance when confronted by violence, as taught by Jesus Christ. When Christ says to turn the other cheek, Tolstoy asserts that Christ means to abolish violence, even the defensive kind, and to abandon revenge. Tolstoy rejects the interpretation of Roman and medieval scholars who attempted to limit its scope.
“How can you kill people, when it is written in God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not murder’?”
Tolstoy took the viewpoint that all governments who waged war are an affront to Christian principles. As the Russian Orthodox Church was—at the time—an organization merged with the Russian state and fully supporting state's policy, Tolstoy sought to separate its teachings from what he believed to be the true gospel of Christ, specifically the Sermon on the Mount.
Tolstoy advocated nonviolence as a solution to nationalist woes and as a means for seeing the hypocrisy of the church. In reading Jesus' words in the Gospels, Tolstoy notes that the modern church is a heretical creation:
“Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church.”
Tolstoy presented excerpts from magazines and newspapers relating various personal experiences, and gave keen insight into the history of non-resistance from the very foundation of Christianity, as being professed by a minority of believers. In particular, he confronts those who seek to maintain status quo:
“That this social order with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies, and wars is necessary to society; that still greater disaster would ensue if this organization were destroyed; all this is said only by those who profit by this organization, while those who suffer from it – and they are ten times as numerous – think and say quite the contrary.”
The title, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, is taken from Luke 17:21. In it Tolstoy speaks of the principle of nonviolent resistance when confronted by violence, as taught by Jesus Christ. When Christ says to turn the other cheek, Tolstoy asserts that Christ means to abolish violence, even the defensive kind, and to abandon revenge. Tolstoy rejects the interpretation of Roman and medieval scholars who attempted to limit its scope.
“How can you kill people, when it is written in God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not murder’?”
Tolstoy took the viewpoint that all governments who waged war are an affront to Christian principles. As the Russian Orthodox Church was—at the time—an organization merged with the Russian state and fully supporting state's policy, Tolstoy sought to separate its teachings from what he believed to be the true gospel of Christ, specifically the Sermon on the Mount.
Tolstoy advocated nonviolence as a solution to nationalist woes and as a means for seeing the hypocrisy of the church. In reading Jesus' words in the Gospels, Tolstoy notes that the modern church is a heretical creation:
“Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church.”
Tolstoy presented excerpts from magazines and newspapers relating various personal experiences, and gave keen insight into the history of non-resistance from the very foundation of Christianity, as being professed by a minority of believers. In particular, he confronts those who seek to maintain status quo:
“That this social order with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies, and wars is necessary to society; that still greater disaster would ensue if this organization were destroyed; all this is said only by those who profit by this organization, while those who suffer from it – and they are ten times as numerous – think and say quite the contrary.”
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 11, 2010
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About the author
Leo Tolstoy
7,982 books28.6k followersLev 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 11, 2016
Excelentes ideias de cariz anarquista, sobretudo a da recusa de servir forças armadas.
No entanto falha ao insistir na sua lógica de não luta e não violência total. E falha sobretudo na solução para uma sociedade perfeita: a crença no deus cristão!
No entanto falha ao insistir na sua lógica de não luta e não violência total. E falha sobretudo na solução para uma sociedade perfeita: a crença no deus cristão!
March 26, 2023
«El cristiano rechaza la ley del Estado porque no tiene necesidad de ella ni para él ni para los demás, puesto que juzga la vida humana más garantizada por la ley del amor que profesa, que por la ley sostenida por la violencia»
— León Tolstói.
— León Tolstói.
March 29, 2022
La versión que revisé tiene cuatro textos del literato ruso y la mitad del texto restante consiste en un capítulo de otro libro que trata de explicar las ideas anarquistas de Lev Tolstoi.
Los textos son lapidarios y muestran la vena nihilista del cristianismo, que amenaza a todo tipo de régimen en el mundo. Son opúsculos incómodos; la vena crítica de Tolstoi es lapidaria y no deja ídolo en pie. Considero que esta antología sirve para un acicate. El escritor ruso declaró que las iglesias cristianas volvieron mundana la doctrina cristina y así el mundo no cambió. La sentencia no pudo ser más flamígera. El error de Tolstoi fue creer empero en la razón: el cristianismo no es la razón, o entenderlo así terminar por hacer que el primero se acomode al mundo. Igual le atribuyo un falso testimonio al noble; ese es el modo de entender la visión anarquista de Tolstoi. Si el cristianismo no es escándalo, no servirá; por eso los defensores de la justicia social tratan de provocarlo para sostenerlo pero ésta no es sino adición al mensaje cristiano. Tolstoi trató de subrayar lo revolucionario del cristianismo, incluso en su tónica antiideológica. Como toda antología, este esfuerzo del recopilador pudo haber viciado su labor para esclarecer las ideas del autor pero considero que fueron textos refrescantes, un balde de agua fría para nuestra conciencia dormida.
Los textos son lapidarios y muestran la vena nihilista del cristianismo, que amenaza a todo tipo de régimen en el mundo. Son opúsculos incómodos; la vena crítica de Tolstoi es lapidaria y no deja ídolo en pie. Considero que esta antología sirve para un acicate. El escritor ruso declaró que las iglesias cristianas volvieron mundana la doctrina cristina y así el mundo no cambió. La sentencia no pudo ser más flamígera. El error de Tolstoi fue creer empero en la razón: el cristianismo no es la razón, o entenderlo así terminar por hacer que el primero se acomode al mundo. Igual le atribuyo un falso testimonio al noble; ese es el modo de entender la visión anarquista de Tolstoi. Si el cristianismo no es escándalo, no servirá; por eso los defensores de la justicia social tratan de provocarlo para sostenerlo pero ésta no es sino adición al mensaje cristiano. Tolstoi trató de subrayar lo revolucionario del cristianismo, incluso en su tónica antiideológica. Como toda antología, este esfuerzo del recopilador pudo haber viciado su labor para esclarecer las ideas del autor pero considero que fueron textos refrescantes, un balde de agua fría para nuestra conciencia dormida.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews