Leo Tolstoy & The Kingdom of God is Within You

The great Russian author Leo Tolstoy is a monumental figure in the world of literature. His epic novel War and Peace is unrivaled in its breadth and scope. But Tolstoy was more than just a fiction writer. He was a keen observer of the human condition and arguably the most progressive Christian in Russia during the 19th and early 20th century. His later writings on the Christian faith influenced spiritual progressives in the both the West and the East, including famous figures such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

Leo Tolstoy’s most influential work on Progressive Christian faith is The Kingdom of God is Within You. The following passage is a one of the book’s most eloquent statements on modern Christian life, as equally true today as when Tolstoy wrote it:

Everyone today who has assimilated Christian principles involuntarily into their conscience, finds themselves in precisely the position of someone who is asleep, and who dreams that they are obliged to do something which even in their dreams they know they shouldn’t do. They know this in the depths of their conscience, and all the same they seem unable to change their position; they cannot stop and cease doing what they ought not do. And just as in a dream, their position becoming more and more painful, it at last reaches a pitch of such intensity that they sometimes begin to doubt the reality of what is passing and make a moral effort to shake off the nightmare that is oppressing them.

This is the condition of the average person in our Christian society. They feel that everything they do themselves and that is done around them is something absurd, hideous, impossible, and opposed to their conscience; they feel that their position is becoming more and more unendurable and reaching a crisis of intensity.

It is not possible that we modern people, with a Christian sense of human dignity and equality permeating us soul and body, with our need for peaceful association and unity between nations, should really go on living in such a way that every joy, every gratification we have is bought by the sufferings, by the lives of our neighbors, and moreover, that we should be every instant within a hair’s-breadth of falling on one another, nation against nation, like wild beasts, mercilessly destroying other people’s lives and labor, only because some benighted politician or ruler says or writes some stupidity to another equally benighted politician or ruler.

It is impossible. Yet everyone of our day sees that this is so and awaits the calamity. And the situation becomes more and more insupportable.

And as the person who is dreaming does not believe that what appears to them can be truly the reality and tries to wake up to the actual real world again, so the average person today cannot in the bottom of their heart believe that the awful position in which they are placed and which is growing worse and worse can be the reality, and tries to wake up to a true, real life, as it exists in their conscience.

Just as the dreamer needs only to make a moral effort and ask themselves, “Isn’t it a dream?” and the situation which seemed to them so hopeless will instantly disappear, revealing a peaceful and happy reality, so the men and women of the modern world need only make a moral effort to doubt the reality presented to them by their own hypocrisy and the general hypocrisy around them, and to ask themselves, “Isn’t it all a delusion?” and they will at once, like the dreamer awakened, feel themselves transported from an imaginary and dreadful world to the true, calm, and happy reality.

To do this, we need not need accomplish great feats or exploits. We need only make a moral effort.

The Kingdom of God is Within you is available to read free online (here).

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Forsaken Me

Gospel of Matthew 27

At daybreak all the chief priests and the councilors of the nation consulted together against Jesus, to bring about his death. 2 They put him in chains and led him away, and gave him up to the Roman governor, Pilate. 3 Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that Jesus was condemned, repented of what he had done, and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and councilors. 4 “I did wrong in betraying a good man to his death,” he said. “What has that to do with us?” they replied. “You must see to that yourself.”

5 Judas flung down the pieces of silver in the temple and left; and went away and hanged himself. 6 The chief priests took the pieces of silver, but they said: “We must not put them into the temple treasury, because they are blood-money.” 7 So after consultation, they bought with them the ‘Potter’s Field’ for a burial-ground for foreigners; 8 And that is why that field is called the ‘Field of Blood’ to this very day. 9 It was then that these words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: ‘They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him who was valued, whom some of the people of Israel valued, 10 And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.’

11 Meanwhile Jesus was brought before the Roman governor. “Are you the King of the Jews?” asked the governor. “That is what you say,” answered Jesus. 12 While charges were being brought against him by the chief priests and councilors, Jesus made no reply. 13 Then Pilate said to him: “Do not you hear how many accusations they are making against you?” 14 Yet Jesus made no reply, not even a single word; at which the governor was greatly astonished.

15 Now, at the feast, the governor was accustomed to grant the people the release of any one prisoner whom they might choose. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So, when the people had gathered, Pilate said to them: “Which do you wish me to release for you? Barabbas? Or Jesus who is called ‘Christ’?” 18 For he knew that it was out of jealousy that they had given Jesus up to him.

19 While he was still on the bench, his wife sent this message to him: “Do not have anything to do with that good man, for I have been very unhappy today because of a dream I had of him.” 20 But the chief priests and the councilors persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, and to kill Jesus. 21 The governor, however, said to them: “Which of these two do you wish me to release for you?” “Barabbas,” they answered. 22 “What then,” Pilate asked, “shall I do with Jesus who is called ‘Christ’?” “Let him be crucified,” they all replied. 23 “Why, what harm has he done?” he asked. But they kept shouting furiously: “Let him be crucified!”

24 When Pilate saw that contrary to his efforts a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying as he did so: “I am not answerable for this bloodshed; you must see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered: “His blood be on our heads and on our children’s!” 26 Then Pilate released Barabbas to them; but Jesus he scourged and gave him up to be crucified.

27 After that, the governor’s soldiers took Jesus with them into the government house and gathered the whole garrison round him. 28 They stripped him and put on him a red military cloak, 29 And having twisted some thorns into a crown, put it on his head, and a rod in his right hand, and then, going down on their knees before him, they mocked him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spat at him and, taking the rod, kept striking him on the head; 31 And, when they had quit mocking him, they took off the military cloak, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified.

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To continue reading Chapter 27 of the Gospel of Matthew, click on page 2 below.