Written 4-1-2022
Having heard rumors of Tolstoy’s Christian views, I was under the impression that his confessions would offer something out of the box, or perhaps some kind of unorthodox mix of folk wisdom and theory. And that’s pretty much right. It’s not orthodox, in the full sense of the word, but it isn’t too dissimilar from other thinkers of the time, ie Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, though it’s still off the beaten path from your typical sunday service.
The book frames itself as a spiritual biography, following Tolstoy’s development from naive young Chrisitian, to confident atheist, to broken suicidal nihilism, and a return to religion. He references thinkers throughout, namely Schopenhauer, Plato, Solomon, Kant, Buddha, Pascal, and some others, making the book a little heavier philosophically, but never fully indulging in anything beyond practical quotes and breadcrumbs of knowledge. The book also ends with an uplifting but ambiguous ending where Tolstoy establishes his anarchistic christianity as the universal religion, but one where the believer is left searching, left to pin down details for oneself.
I have no doubts this is a great essay, even just on the basis that it’s Tolstoy’s own account of what gives life meaning. It all at once feels personal, historical, psychological, and gripping from a theological perspective. His take is not one wholly unique, but one enriched by biography. The views at the heart of this confession are ones I’ve heard from numerous christians, particularly ones that are of the returning sort that Tolstoy describes as having returned to their home shore once again. And it's in these humble, human centered modes that Tolstoy uses in his fiction that he establishes bridge after bridge to the reader's own life. No matter the reader’s religion, I can’t help but feel those unwilling to see Tolstoy’s greatness are also unable to let themselves be vulnerable to the truth itself.
Of course the arguments presented here also carry their own weight, though they’ve been repeated before and after this book. They seem to me to hold water, and from a Christian perspective they seem not so much heterodox as necessary. I do think the end raises the real question: Once we’ve accepted all this and accepted flaws in all religious sects, where to next? There still seems to me room for agnostic or atheist thought in Tolstoy’s reasoning. There also seems like there’s a lack of considering the effects of treating miracles or biblical events as myth or folktale. And what happens when we exhaust the resources of study we have? Might we not find ourselves siding with a particular sect once again? Perhaps there are no answers to those questions. If that is the case, I still think we are happy with Tolstoy’s answers, but to say “we” is imperfect.
My verdict is that the book is good. I agree with 99% of it, but even that 99% comes with an asterix. Naturally, at ~60 pages, it leaves questions unanswered, and it’s only through significant studying and experience that we’ll catch up with old Tolstoy.