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A rich, accessible introduction to one of the world’s greatest novelists, this anthology shows how life and teachings of Jesus inspired some of Tolstoy’s best literary work.
This anthology vividly reveals Tolstoy’s lifelong fascination with the life and teachings of Jesus – in a way none of his novels, stories, or essays could on its own. In the hands of a master storyteller, the gospel themes come to life: betrayal and forgiveness, sacrifice and redemption, death and resurrection.
Hailed as one of the world’s greatest writers – by the likes of Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Woolf, Joyce, Proust, Faulkner, and Nabokov – Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) is best known for his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. But his short stories express a hard-won faith, and his essays on Christianity, nonviolent resistance, and justice profoundly influenced many including Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Born into Russian nobility, Tolstoy eventually renounced his wealth and sought to put his beliefs into practice.
This rich, accessible introduction to a literary giant is drawn from Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Master and Man, Walk in the Light, Twenty-Three Tales, Confession, and The Kingdom of God is Within You. Tolstoy enthusiasts will be pleased to find some of his deepest, most compelling passages in one volume, while new readers will find their appetites whetted for more.
View Table of ContentsThese selections do justice to the vivid prose of a man whose faith was informed by this profound depth of passion as well as solitary loneliness that comes through in Tolstoy's reminiscence of his youth. This is an author who has mastered the need and art of introspection, and that he was able to extract the resulting fruit from those many years of introspection and formulate it into a body of writing that appeals to this day is a testament to the voice he gives to the inner questions and existential angsts that we all at times may feel. If you seek a companion for your own introspective paths into the soul, you may find a knowing guide in Leo Tolstoy.
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.… 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.
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.
It was Dostoevesky that rescued me from existentialist literary clutches of Nietzsche. But it was Tolstoy who brought me into the rich relationship religion of life with Jesus Christ. So this book is a real treasure, alongside The Gospel in Dostoevsky. A treasure, I hasten to add, that's not to be missed. Pastors, particularly, would do well to have both books on their shelves, and revisit these works again and again. There's plenty of preaching fodder here.
