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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN num: 9781570756733
ISBN number: 1570756732
Label: Orbis Books
Manufacturer: Orbis Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 206
Printing Date: August 23, 2006
Publishing house: Orbis Books
Sale Popularity Level: 380070
Studio: Orbis Books
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Rated by buyers -
I discovered Tolstoy when I was twelve years old, and I've been reading and rereading him ever since (over forty years now; where did all that time go!?) My guess is that Tolstoy is one of the major influences in my life. I only began to appreciate how deeply he'd influenced me when I discovered Gandhi in my twenties, and realized that I agreed with most of what the Mahatma said because I'd already been convinced by Tolstoy.
But I've always been puzzled by Tolstoy's religious beliefs, never feeling that I had a good grasp of them but sensing that until I did, I could never really appreciate Tolstoy's message. Charles Moore's excellent compilation has helped me begin to make sense of what Tolstoy believed. Reading his anthology, I'm persuaded that sometimes Tolstoy's reflections on religion simply don't make sense (his "Thoughts on God" strike me as simply confused), sometimes they suggest a liberal moralism dressed up as religion, and sometimes they're preachy and judgmental. But at his best, Tolstoy's vision of God as love, prayer as the method by which we get in touch with divine love, and the exercise of love as the heart of Jesus' message, is superb. It's what inspired Gandhi in his nonviolence, and it's what makes Tolstoy still worth reading. (One crucial question, however, is how to sustain loyalty to Jesus' moral message while denying, as Tolstoy did, Jesus' divinity.)
Moore's anthology also focuses (in its very first section) on Tolstoy's lifelong search for meaning and truth (Tolstoy's dying words were an affirmation of his love for truth). Tolstoy was one of those persons with a deep and abiding hunger for deep meaning in life, and this longing motivated much in his life and writings, sometimes driving him to excess. In our day and age, existential hunger seems quaint. Perhaps we fear to acknowledge our own hunger because we sense, howsoever vaguely, that doing so will bring us pain. But if Tolstoy's correct, we only really learn to love when we embrace the hunger.
All in all, much good nourishment in this collection, prefaced by a very worthy introduction written by editor Moore. Highly recommended.
Rated by buyers -
This book was an excellent summary of Tolstoy's thinking, the editor has taken parts from several of Tolstoy's writings and hashed them together in a logical pattern. It stays rather light compared to the experience of reading a single Tolstoy doctrine such as "The Kingdom of God is Within You". Excellent introduction. I'm giving this to a friend now to get her familiar.
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