Monday, September 11, 2006

Tolstoy online!

Some diligent person, god bless their soul, has transcribed Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You in it's entirety for the web.

Not the dude from ZZ Top...

This treatise on christian anarchism is central to my own exegesis of the gospels. Classic, classic stuff. A must-read for anyone serious about living out the teachings of Jesus. (I mean the real radical stuff, like "blessed are the peacemakers" and the works of mercy, etc.)

See also the Catholic Worker movement, and the Wikipedia entry on Tolstoy.

1 comment:

Darwin BondGraham said...

I'm glad I scan your blog time to time, and yes, God bless their soul!

I first read this last year. I used to just consider myself a nonviolent anarchist because nonviolence seemed like the best tactical decision. This book has led me further toward calling myself a pacifist for reasons much deeper than political beliefs or tactical social movement considerations.

Although I'm not a Christian and I don't worship any God(s) in any temples I do now consider myself a radical pacifist for spiritual reasons.

The thing I like best about this treatise is that he not only makes the appeal to nonviolence in spiritual terms, he also lays down a sociological reasoning as to why nonviolence is the way to go.

The closing of the book is by far some of the most powerful words ever written.