Heretical Orthodoxy

Lev Tolstoi and the Russian Orthodox Church

Pål Kolstø

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781009260404
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009260381
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Historia y teoría política

Lev Tolstoi was not only one of the world's most famous writers, he was also a deeply concerned thinker and hugely influential critic of the Church whose impact was felt long after his death. For an entire generation, Tolstoi set the agenda for ethical and religious thought, in Russia and beyond. Most of Tolstoi's main ideas drew on his Christian heritage – selected and creatively combined. While he claimed that his life's work consisted of rediscovering the pure doctrine of Christ as it had been before the Church perverted it, in fact he radically reinterpreted the Christian faith he had encountered in his own life, Russian Orthodoxy. This book offers a new and comprehensive account of Tolstoi's relationship with the Orthodox Church and its teachings, and shows how the Russian Church reacted to the "Tolstoi phenomenon" and attempted to counteract the influence of this new "heretic" - with scant success.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Tolstoi as a Practicing Orthodox
• Chapter 3 Tolstoi's Examination of Dogmatic Theology
• Chapter 4 Tolstoi, Orthodoxy and Asceticism
• Chapter 5 Lev Tolstoi and Orthodox Forms of Spirituality: Elders
• Chapter 6 Tolstoi and the Wanderer Tradition in Russian Culture
• Chapter 7 Tolstoi and the Ideal of ''the Holy Fool''
• Chapter 8 Father Sergius: Kasatskii's Spiritual Journey to Holy Foolishness
• Chapter 9 Tolstoi and the Social Ideal of the Eastern Church: John Chrysostom
• Chapter 10 The Church Mounts a Counterattack: Threat Perceptions and Combat Strategies
• Chapter 11 Between ''Almost Orthodox'' and ''Antichrist'': Images of Lev Tolstoi in Russian Orthodox Polemics
• Chapter 12 The ''Excommunication'' and Its Aftermath
• Chapter 13 A Requiem for a Heretic? The Controversy over Lev Tolstoi's Burial
• Chapter 14 Summary and Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index