The Gospel in Tolstoy: Selections from His Short Stories, Spiritual Writings & Novels

by Leo Tolstoy, Miriam LeBlanc (Editor)

We know of no better introduction to the spiritual vision of one of the greatest writers of all time, Leo Tolstoy. This anthology vividly reveals – as none of his novels, novellas, short stories, plays, or essays could on its own – the great Russian novelist’s fascination with the life and teachings of Jesus and the gospel themes of betrayal and forgiveness, sacrifice and redemption, death and resurrection. Drawn from War and Peace , Anna Karenina, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, Master and Man, Walk in the Light, and Twenty-Three Tales, the selections are each prefaced by a contextual note. Newcomers will find in these pages a rich, accessible sampling. Tolstoy enthusiasts will be pleased to find some of the writer’s deepest, most compelling passages in one volume.

Genres: Spirituality, Theology, Christianity, Short Stories, Religion, Classics

328 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 2015

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

[Nelson Banuchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one book that will challenge all your notions of what it really means to be a Christian. You may not agree with the moral teaching imbedded in each of the stories LeBlanc selected, but they will captivate your mind and move you to earnestly think about what being a Christian means personally to you.

From the very brief "Biographical Sketch," we see that Tolstoy was apparently a tragic figure who, in spite of much success, was "plagued with suicidal thoughts" until he took a "look beyond his own circle" and "noticed that the peasants, despite their poverty, had an instinctive sense of life's purpose. Their faith in God and simple labor propelled them to live. And then it dawned on him: he too only lived at those times he believed in God. It was a decisive conversion experience, after which never left him" (p.xiii-xiv).

However, he left the Church when it ordered praying for the utter destruction of Russia's enemies "with sword and bombshell." Tolstoy outspoken pacifism influenced men like Gandhi, Shaw, MLK, Jr. He made sacrifices giving up his wealth, profits, property, and even breaking with his family that would throw him and his wife into constant battle. He renounced all of his publication rights and signed all his property to wife and children.

The writing selected reveal a man who saw the sharp inconsistency of the teachings of Christ and the way Christians believed and lived. It seems many of the stories are of persons seeking for a purposeful and happy life but failing until they come to realize that "To know God and to live come to one and the same thing. God is life" (p.43).

This is not a book for the Christian who is too lazy to seek for why God put him where he is, or for one too enamored with his own self and possessions to care for others, too attached to his own theologically moral and ethical, and, yes, even his political presuppositions...but, wait! No, maybe that is just the person who should read this book...the lazy, the self-absorbed, the purposeless, the know-it-all, the seeker.

I believe these selections of Tolstoy by LeBlanc will keep you thinking and thinking, struggling to come to some satisfying conclusion on just want it means for you to to live the genuine Christian life and how much are you willing to pay to live it.

[Joseph J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Caro in his first volume on Lyndon Johnson writes of his shy young wife Lady Bird lugging around a heavy book, War and Peace. A source of humor to her husband's politically sophisticated Washington D.C. friends, that time became known as the summer Lady Bird read War and Peace. But as Caro notes, Lady Bird finished the classic and, seeing much of value in it, reread the great novel. When most hear the name Tolstoy, they think heavy weight, heavy Russian literature. However as Lady Bird found, much of value. Unlike War and Peace, this volume, The Gospel in Tolstoy, is not heavy. Yet like War and Peace there is much, so very much of value. Perhaps one doesn't associate Tolstoy with Biblical writing or Christian authors. Tolstoy though struggled with the Gospel message of Christ throughout his life, in deep and personally traumatic ways as he tried to reconcile his personal wealth and possessions with Christ's call from the Sermon on the Mount. This volume includes excerpts from War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. If these great works are the gold in the literary legacy of Tolstoy, the short stories in this volume are the jewels. The short stories portray the sweat and grit of the Russia Tolstoy knew. Here are the peasants and farmers and cobblers, their wives and children in a daily struggle of survival, financial and actual. Yet in their lowliness they not only find God, they live God toward their fellow humans. These are parables, drawn from ordinary and everyday life, with that twist, that moment, found in the parables of Jesus. Another volume in this Plough series, the Gospel in Dorothy Sayers, noted the great British author criticized the mediocrity in Christian literature, art and preaching. Walk into the spirituality section of a bookstore today and one still finds much of the banal. Not here. In The Gospel in Tolstoy we encounter true genius as a great mind out of his personal struggle and questioning leaves a legacy of great and memorable spiritual reflection.

[Timo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is composed of a short biographical sketch, a main part with excerpts from his writings, and a short afterword about theological aspects of his Christian faith. The excerpts in the main part are ordered thematically according to the themes „Finding God“, „Love of neighbour“, „Peace and non-violence“, „Forgiveness“, „Living simply“, and „The way of the kingdom“.
I have only read about half of the excerpts so far, but will probably read the remaining ones one at a time whenever there is time.

I enjoyed the writings. You get an impression of what kind of topics Tolstoy was thinking about and struggling with.
The Sermon on the Mount was apparently quite central to Tolstoy‘s life and faith and how he approached life, shaping for example his pacifism. Another important theme of his writings is „Love of neighbour“, as he quotes for example the First Letter of John in one of the stories: „No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us.“

I like how Tolstoy builds his stories, and will probably pick up one of his books soon.
It is just a little exhausting (cannot find a better word right now) delving into a story for 10 pages or so and then jumping to another one and then again…

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A re-read for the three questions, so not re-read entirely, just that particular story.

[Ian Evancho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful book from start to finish

[Jackie St Hilaire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is a dream and death an awakening. Leo Tolstoy.

How does one breakaway from tradition? How does one follow his/her own truth? What must one leave behind to free herself from the bondage of life that restrains her?

Leo Tolstoy a man who in the eyes of the world had it all, nobility, fame, riches, family and friends. yet it wasn't enough. Something in his life was missing, something in his conscience had gone array. Some call it the dark night of the soul, others call it grace.

Tolstoy had left behind his soul and realizing that the truth would set him free, Tolstoy set out to free himself from the burdens of his attachments, leading him to a crossroad that all of us will have to face if we are searching for our truth. But beware. finding the truth has it's disadvantages.

Mark 10: 17-22
The Rich Young Ruler
As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
“You know the commandments, Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.”
Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

Luke 14:26
One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple.

Tolstoy literally did leave his wife and family and exiled himself. He was following his own truth, he had his reasons. No one should judge another. This was his path that he chose to stay true to his conscience.

In these short stories we are given a glimpse of Tolstoy's struggles to free himself from himself. Truth was moral. In the end Tolstoy writes: "It is love that ultimately matters."

On the day before his death at the age of 82, Tolstoy cried out to his son: "Sergie! Sergie! I love Truth...very much, I love Truth."

Books by Tolstoy that can be also be found in Public Domain
[[ASIN:1466325984 The Kingdom of God is Within You]]
[[ASIN:0140444734 A Confession and Other Religious Writings (Penguin Classics)]]
[[ASIN:0553210351 The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Bantam Classics)]]
[[ASIN:1570754608 Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales]]
[[ASIN:1598184695 What To Do?]]
[[ASIN:0486432165 Resurrection (Dover Thrift Editions)]]
[[ASIN:1438527454 The Light Shines in Darkness]]

[Al Owski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall the book is a collection of excerpts from Tolstoy's great novels, his spiritual writings, short stories, ending with a serious dialog about Christianity in "Walk in the Light While There is Light." Tolstoy took the teachings of Christ very seriously, particularly the Sermon on the Mount. Many people who have read Tolstoy have been influenced by him. The Bolsheviks, Gandhi, modern Anabaptists (e.g. the Bruderhof) and MLK have each selected from his writings a particular take on Christ’s and how to implement a life based on his teachings.

[Crystal Bedell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of stories and excerpts written by Tolstoy on Christian themes. A couple of them are a bit long-winded, but his characters are engaging and relatable. I'll be putting more of his work on my to-read list.