The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy

First published:Tsarstvo Bozhie vnutri vas, 1893 (English translation, 1894)

Edition(s) used:The Kingdom of God Is Within You: Christianity Not as a Mystic Religion but as a New Theory of Life, translated by Constance Garnett, introduction by David Taffel. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2005

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Subgenre(s): Didactic treatise; spiritual treatise; theology

Core issue(s): Faith; holiness; morality; peace; sacrifice; social action

Overview

Leo Tolstoy sets the purpose and tone of his argument by quoting the “Declaration of Sentiments Adopted by the Peace Convention” of 1838, a lengthy document that openly and emphatically opposes war, violence, and murder, and promotes the principles of peace, nonresistance, and forgiveness. He then recounts the efforts of many individuals and groups in Europe and the United States who have spoken out against war and have urged people to live according to Christ’s teachings. These efforts met with complete silence, however. A perplexed Tolstoy, searching for an explanation, cites five arguments opposing nonviolence and universal love: some people say Christ sanctioned violence; others believe that wicked people make it necessary to use force; resistance to evil by force is justified when one is protecting a neighbor; one who uses force can still be a Christian; and, finally, many believe that Christians must serve prevailing earthly powers. Tolstoy rejects each of these rationalizations in turn and asserts that the life of a Christian is a struggle and sacrifice, and if one persists, one will progress toward blessedness, which cannot be fully achieved on earth, only approached.

The church has strayed from the truth of Christianity by claiming that it alone possesses the truth of the Gospels, whereas, in fact, it has become the chief obstacle against the teaching of Christ’s principles. Churchmen actually oppose Christianity by teaching their infallibility, and they have come to represent pride, violence, stagnation, and death. The Christian church is hypocritical because it preaches the principles of Jesus but does not follow them. The church is filled with men who strive only to remain secure in their comfortable positions, doing so by helping to keep the poor in their place and supporting a government that in turn supports the Church. Government itself is made up of individuals who depend on it for support and whose aim in life is to keep order and maintain the status quo, which is based on inequality, injustice, and the use of force. The landowners, merchants, and idle rich generally depend on the workers for income and yet do nothing but exploit them. By contrast, the true Christian is marked by penitence, meekness, humility, and peace.

Tolstoy describes the way in which churches, whether Catholic, Anglican, or Lutheran, and church organizations, such as the Salvation Army, teach conformity and subservience to their power and hide from people the truth of Christ’s teaching. Explaining why people continue to be exploited by government and the privileged classes, Tolstoy asserts that people are hypnotized by tradition and secular and religious teaching as well as by habit, continuing to do what has been done for centuries, even if doing so means continuing to be exploited, to live in poverty and slavery, and to serve a cruel and ruthless government. The result is that children and adults alike are deceived and accept a false truth to sustain the authority of governments and organized religions.

What is needed is a new approach to life, one that reflects the more advanced state into which people have progressed. That new life requires throwing off church authority, government rule, and any system or institution that does not promote nonviolence, equality, and justice. The true doctrine of Christ attunes one to a consciousness of the whole of existence, and because the true nature of the soul is love, one becomes attuned to God, the quintessence of love. The Christian spirit embraces not individuals or specific objects, but the entire realm of life.

Tolstoy spends much of his book denouncing militarism, especially war and the use of violence. He describes at length the process of drafting young men into the military, taking them from their homes and family, and sending them away to kill or to be killed. He dwells on the paradox of witnessing youths in high spirits one moment and, in the next, having to kill someone on the orders of their superiors. The extent to which people are enslaved by the state is evident in the fact that soldiers will turn against their own countrymen, even their own families, if ordered to do so by their superiors. Sons drafted into the military become potential killers of their brothers, sisters, and parents.

A Christian conscience recognizes that contemporary life is based on inequality, injustice, oppression, and self-interest. The chief instrument that governments use to maintain power is the military, and the chief purpose of the millions of men under arms is to kill people who oppose the ruling classes. The whole state depends on the use of force, from judges to tax collectors, to any public official who serves the state. This old order will disappear when Christian individuals realize that they have been conditioned by society in general to sacrifice their happiness for the benefit of the powerful and when these individuals refuse to serve the old order, resisting in nonviolent ways. Gradually, people worldwide will unite when they have recognized God’s presence within and have adopted nonviolence as a way of life. When they do, hypocrisy, inequality, war, and all the other evils of society will be replaced by universal love, peace, and brotherhood.

Christian Themes

God’s laws were revealed by Christ and are recognized by individuals in their conscience. Happiness, Tolstoy asserts, derives from the consciousness of living according to Christ’s teachings, thereby fulfilling the will of God, which is to love everyone and never to resist evil with force. Evil is the use of force or violence against any living creature, and one gains complete freedom by renouncing evil. Tolstoy attacks contemporary science because it rejects biblical teachings, and he expresses equal displeasure with organized religions because they support governments and do not minister to the poor in the way that Christ taught. The church hides the truth of Christ’s teachings to sustain its authority.

Tolstoy believes that humanity has advanced from the pagan stage, in which people were driven by selfish needs, to that of the state, in which individuals were subservient to the political structure and to organized religion, and finally to the modern state, in which people recognize God as the eternal source of life. People will awaken to this new stage, for in their hearts they have the spirit of God to guide them. They can live in peace without government coercion. Christ’s principles have the force to turn people from violence and toward love and brotherhood.

Tolstoy says perhaps the greatest evil of all is militarism, which forces people to commit violence in the name of law and order; it requires unquestioning obedience to an order to kill others, whereas true Christians must be free to choose for themselves, and if they are free, they will choose to love rather than to kill. To be happy and free is to rid oneself of social and political enthrallment by refusing to serve a militaristic government and fulfilling God’s will by loving everyone and eschewing violence. Blessedness is achieved in a twofold effort: within, people must progress toward a Christian love of all creatures; outwardly, they must strive to establish the kingdom of God by adopting the way of the true Christian.

Sources for Further Study

Fausset, Hugh I’Anson. Tolstoy: The Inner Drama. London: Jonathan Cape, 1927. A psychological explanation of Tolstoy’s religious beliefs in relation to his personal struggle and to the growth of human consciousness in general.

Nazaroff, Alexander I. Tolstoy: The Inconstant Genius. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1929. Explains how The Kingdom of God Is Within You represents a change in Tolstoy’s Christian beliefs and leads to his increased social involvement.

Simmons, Ernest J. Introduction to Tolstoy’s Writings. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968. Reviews the principal ideas in The Kingdom of God Is Within You and places them in the larger framework of Tolstoy’s religious convictions.

Taffel, David. Introduction to The Kingdom of God Is Within You. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2005. Summarizes Tolstoy’s Christian beliefs and shows their relevance to Tolstoy’s other writings and to conditions in the modern world.

Wenzer, Kenneth C. “Tolstoy’s Georgist Spiritual Political Economy (1897-1910): Anarchism and Land Reform.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 56, no. 4 (October, 1997): 639-668. Sees Tolstoy’s religious writings as an expression of his spiritual beliefs late in life and explains their genesis and worldwide influence, both social and political.