The Place of Leo Tolstoy in the Orthodox Church

[Punchy]

How do Eastern Orthodox Christians, especially Russian Orthodox, regard the religious writings of Leo Tolstoy including his Confession, The Kingdom of God is Within You and The Gospel in Brief? Was he ever condemned as a heretic for his theological opinions?

 

[gzt]

Yes, he was a heretic and apostate at the end of his life. He was eventually excommunicated. Some of his writings are held in high regard, though: a couple moralistic short stories of his, for instance. Those three books, however, are not.

 

[Punchy]

I think it's profound how, at the moment before committing suicide, the thirst for God saved his life. He gave up the upper class life and lived as a peasant, just as Jesus would want us to live.

 

[gzt]

I mean, yeah, he did some great things. He also rejected the divinity of Christ.

 

[Punchy]

I mean, yeah, he did some great things. He also rejected the divinity of Christ.

What have you read by Tolstoy?

 

[gzt]

War and Peace, Anna Karenin, Resurrection, a bunch of his short stories, The Kingdom of God is Within You, and I've skimmed his other religious works. But it's been quite a while.

 

[Punchy]

Did you find any enjoyment or insight in his religious writing?

 

[rusmeister]

It is really important to understand that the Church did nothing in particular to Tolstoy.
The version for dummies is that Tolstoy said that Jesus wasn't the Son of God, and the Church said, "Uhh, if you don't believe that, you're not Orthodox." They couldn't very well let him take Communion, etc, if he couldn't confess the Apostle's Creed. As a result, Tolstoy shut himself off from the Church.
It would be easy if you didn't know that to see him as a victim (of misunderstanding or whatever).

 

[ThePilgrim]

Did you find any enjoyment or insight in his religious writing?

Yes, but that doesn't make him Orthodox.

 

[eoe]

I enjoy CS Lewis too....

 

[Emmanuel-A]

I still wonder how a man could write such great, deep novels that reveal a great knowledge of humankind such as War and Peace, Anna Karenine, The death of Ivan Ilitch, etc on one hand, and on the other be so proud, conceited in his writings about religion.
He did not claim not to be a Christian, but to know better about Christianity than the Church itself.

 

[Punchy]

I still wonder how a man could write such great, deep novels that reveal a great knowledge of humankind such as War and Peace, Anna Karenine, The death of Ivan Ilitch, etc on one hand, and on the other be so proud, conceited in his writings about religion.
He did not claim not to be a Christian, but to know better about Christianity than the Church itself.

Despite his imperfections, he at least tried to live his life as a Christian.

 

[rusmeister]

Perhaps, although denying the divinity of Jesus puts a huge question mark over the title "Christian", and that's not the point of the OP. You asked, we're explaining.

Being nice, or even moral, does not mean one is professing the Orthodox faith. Any number of pagans were of good moral character.