The Kingdom of God is Within You (Annotated with Biography and Critical Essay)

Leo Tolstoy

Nov 2013 · Golgotha Press

About this ebook

Tolstoy wrote The Kingdom of God is Within You in the early 1890’s, after his crisis of religion and turning from the temptation of suicide.  The book was banned in Russia and its first publication was in Germany in 1894.  The title for the book was taken from the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.  Tolstoy agreed with the principle that Christians have the guiding principle of love within themselves and that it is part of their spiritual being, and the only way to live was to follow that “kingdom of God” within each person.

The Kingdom of God is Within You was a follow-up to the book My Religion, which followed A Confession.  In the book, Tolstoy discussed his position that the church, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church, had lost its way – the true way that was preached by the early Christians.  To Tolstoy, the early church founders would not have recognized the established church that had evolved and called itself “Christian”.  He rails against what society has become and does not agree that ‘this social order, with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies and wars, is necessary to society.’ 

This annotated edition includes a biography and critical essay.

 

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About the author

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in Russia. He is usually referred to as Leo Tolstoy. He was a Russian author who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Leo Tolstoy is best known for his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy's fiction includes dozens of short stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays. Tolstoy had a profound moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870's which he outlined in his work, A Confession. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. His ideas of nonviolent resistance which he shared in his works The Kingdom of God is Within You, had a profund impact on figures such as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. On September 23, 1862 Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs. She was the daughter of a court physician. They had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood. Their early married life allowed Tolstoy much freedom to compose War and Peace and Anna Karenina with his wife acting as his secretary and proofreader. The Tolstoy family left Russia in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union. Leo Tolstoy's relatives and descendants moved to Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the United States. Tolstoy died of pneumonia at Astapovo train station, after a day's rail journey south on November 20, 1910 at the age of 82.