Leo Tolstoy: Freethinking, Reason and Religion

By: Seyed Javad Meynagh

Abstract

The question of Russian Religious Intellectuals is one of those important issues which modernist (disciplinary, secular, academic) social theory refuses to engage with for various ideological reasons such as the unreasonable insistence on the relevance of religious paradigm as a contemporary issue and not only a matter of historical past. To present Tolstoy we are not only interested in a thinker of the past but our main aim is to demonstrate the relevance of perennial questions which are embodied within the discourses of various intellectuals from distinct (but interdependent) religious traditions across the globe. In this sense the Russian Religious Circle proves to be one of the most enchanting traditions that world has produced to this day.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828 at Yasnya Polyana, in Tula Province, the fourth of five children. His parents died when he was a child, and he was brought up by relatives. In 1844 Tolstoy started his studies of law and oriental languages at Kazan University, but he never took a degree. Dissatisfied with the standard of education, he returned in the middle of his studies back to Yasnya Polyana, and then spent much of his time in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Tolstoy was treated for venereal disease in 1847, and for most of the rest of his life was troubled by his tendency to debauch himself on a grand scale. After contracting heavy gambling debts, Tolstoy accompanied his elder brother to the Caucasus in 1851 -where Russia started to wage two wars on Iran and finally annexing vast land of Iran into Russia empire- and joined an artillery regiment. In the 1850s Tolstoy also began his literary career, publishing the autobiographical trilogy Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854), and Youth (1857). In 1857 Tolstoy visited France, Switzerland, and Germany to learn more about society and how to reform it. After his travels Tolstoy settled in Yasnya Polyana, where he started a school for peasant children. He believed that the secret of changing the world lay in education. He investigated educational theory and practice, and published magazines and textbooks on the subject. In 1862 he married Sonya Andreyevna Behrs (1844-1919) who bore him 13 children. Sonya also acted as her husband's devoted secretary. Tolstoy's fiction grew originally out of his diaries, in which he tried to understand his own feelings and actions so as to control them. Tolstoy's major work, War and Peace, appeared between the years 1865 and 1869. The epic tale depicted the story of five families against the background of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Tolstoy's other masterpiece, Anna Karenina (1873-77), told a tragic story of a married woman, who follows her lover, but finally commits suicide. Tolstoy juxtaposed in the work crises of family life with the quest for the meaning of life. This was a quest that finally dominated whole his philosophy of life. After finishing Anna Karenina Tolstoy renounced all his earlier works and wrote Conversion (1879) to explain his doctrines. Voskresenia (1899, Resurrection) was Tolstoy's last major novel. By this time, Tolstoy started to see himself more as a sage and moral leader than an artist. He started to write letters to Muslim religious leaders and stated his love to Prophet Muhammad as an epitome of Ideal Man. In 1901 the Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated the author. Tolstoy became seriously ill and he recuperated in Crimea. After leaving his estate to his disciple Vladimir Chertkov so as to follow the urge to live as a wandering ascetic, Tolstoy died of pneumonia on November 20, 1910, at a remote railway junction. His collected works, which were published in the Soviet Union in 1928-58, consists of 90 volumes. (Steiner, 1969)

Tolstoy on Existential Questions

There could be disagreements on what are the fundamental questions of Existentialism but there is no doubt that what is the main problem within Existentialism is none but the question of Man as a conscious being who has a quest. This quest cannot and should not be suppressed or replaced, as this is what distinguishes between man and other sentient beings. As we mentioned earlier Tolstoy displayed an intense interest in this integral question of all, namely the quest for meaning and argued that a life without this quest is not worth living and he, as a matter of fact, lived his life by this rule to the end unlike many philosophers who preached what they never did.

Tolstoy on God

In a dictum Tolstoy puts his understanding of God in the following manner:

Where Love Is, There God Is Also. (Jordan, 2001. p 21)

The essence of Love is what God is or to put it otherwise God is what Love is. This love, however, is not a carnal surge of passions but a gradual growth in self-consciousness which should lead us ultimately towards God-consciousness, which could awaken our dormant abilities in discerning beauty, good and truth in all aspects of creation that is none but an expression of God. Reaching to this level of spiritual growth would only awaken one overwhelming feeling within any man and that is what we call by the word Love or total dedication and affiliation free of carnality in all aspects of one’s entire existence. For Tolstoy God is not an external reality imposed upon human reality but it is what Man is, namely he is a Divine Reality, which is not conscious of his own true/authentic reality yet. That is why he invited us to reflect upon life in its integral manner. One needs to learn how to detach from bustling realities that envelop one’s life at any time and at any juncture. Somewhere in one of his literary work he urges us as follows:

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. (Jordan, 2001. p 22)

For Tolstoy, God is within you provided you aspire towards this self-realization. In the last chapter of The Kingdom of God is Within You, which is Tolstoy's best non-fiction work, Tolstoy insists that man must aspire to the Kingdom of God, not the kingdoms of the world. That is to say, one should in the course of life take stance and follow divine directives by taking steps in each instance and not only believe intellectually but existentially demonstrate his faith in his each deeds and doings incessantly until the last breath. (Tolstoy, 1985, p 48)

Tolstoy on Man

Tolstoy’s view on Man is not separated from his understanding on God as the ultimate reality. So the view on human being turns into how Tolstoy viewed the being of man. Did he view him as a reality unto himself as many contemporary sociologists and philosophers of modernity do today? Or for him the being of Man is an inseparable reality of divine reality? His view is based on this religious anthropology that establishes a bond between the human being and divine being; it summons humanity to take up a real step towards the riddles of life. A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction is. Man needs to know but this knowledge is not what we have been accustomed to by discursive science that analyzes man and the universe into their minutest details but it is unable of showing him the direction. The true science for Tolstoy is a science that investigates and brings to human perception such truths and such knowledge as the people of a given time and society consider most important. Because without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible and what we call human being is devoid of any sensible reality. This is one of the highest truths of intellection which needs to be realized within the recesses of human soul and that could only be done by art. In other words, art transmits these truths from the region of perception to the region of emotion. But again, the question is what does constitute the essence of knowledge that is so imperative for the becoming of human being in the eyes of Tolstoy?

It is love. Somewhere he says:

All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. (Tolstoy, 1985. p 34)

Or in another instance he says:

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source. (1983. p 89)

In other words, man is a being that becomes in the course of his existence through what he does and faith is an important factor in this becoming within Tolstoy’s philosophy of being. The meaning of life is not detached from the kind of life we lead. That is to say, taking an example from one of his memorable work which is called Anna Karenina, you cannot lead a life of sin and expect to have the meaningful life of a saint. For Tolstoy, there are clear rules of conduct and those who go astray, as Anna did, lose all significance. The ideas of realization, authenticity and alienation are all set up within the texture of this great novel by Tolstoy. (Tolstoy, 1982)

Tolstoy's masterful novel Anna Karenina has found its way into the popular culture through various film versions, including one starring Christopher Reeve that was made for television. Generally speaking, the popular view of the novel that has resulted from these films is that it is the tale of an exciting but tragic love affair between a frustrated housewife and a dashing young aristocrat. Like many popular conceptions, however, this is a misconception. Tolstoy's aim in his portrayal of the adulterous love affair is to expose the moral corruption that leads to the dissolution of the family. And he makes this point by contrasting Anna's love affair with Levin's marriage. (Tolstoy, 1961)

A key to the contrast that Tolstoy sets up is the figure of the child; indeed, as we have noted, it is with the appearance of a child that a family comes into being. Should anyone suppose that Anna's affair with Vronsky is exciting and wonderful, we have only to recall Tolstoy's account of how this indulgence devastates her son Seryozha. He is described as "the compass which showed [his mother and her lover] the degree of their divergence from what they knew was right, but did not want to see." It is not as a judge, however, that Seryozha reveals to them their divergence from what is right. Rather, it is as a victim. Because he is a child, he represents a precious but fragile possibility for life; because he is a child, he embodies the meaning and direction that open up a future in which some redemption from a life void of meaning may be sought. Hence, the child is the core of home and family. And the child is just the one who is betrayed in Anna's illicit love affair.

"I love two beings only," says Anna of Seryozha and her lover Vronsky, "but the one excludes the other." And we know which one she chooses. After she has left her family, one of Seryozha's "favorite occupations," says Tolstoy, "was keeping a lookout for his mother during his walks." But she is almost never to be seen. Once she has a child by Vronsky, in fact, we are told that "the separation from her son...did not trouble her," since she had grown so attached to the daughter she had by Vronsky "that she rarely thought of her son." And yet the declaration of her love for "two beings only" was made long after the birth of her daughter. This attachment too, therefore, is soon eclipsed by her preoccupation with Vronsky's love for her and with a personal happiness that is forever longed for but never realized.

Why it is never realized? Because in truth Anna loves no being other than the counterfeit being she has fashioned by making herself her own heroine in a romance whose outcome is determined from the start. Living with her lover in a house that is not a home and in an arrangement that is inimical to marriage, she exchanges a family life for the illusion of a love life. To her, happiness is my happiness, and not the happiness of her family. Thus, becoming a sign only of herself, and not of the significance of the other human being, Anna is drained of all significance. Like Narcissus at the pool, she gazes into the mirror of her self-styled fairy tale until, as Tolstoy says, she no longer recognizes herself. For, so to speak, she has lost the image of wife and mother that would be the basis of such recognition. The only action that remains for her to establish some significance in life is to take her own life. This she does without a thought for the children who would be orphaned by her action.

What is missing from Anna's love for Vronsky is precisely the love that forms the basis of the family, which is a love for the other person expressive of a higher relation. It is the love for the holy, as it is evinced by the love between husband and wife, the love that puts the holy into holy matrimony. Only when marriage rests on such a foundation can a family come into being. In Anna Karenina Tolstoy illustrates this point through the tale of Levin, which is the tale of a movement into life that runs counter to the story of the title character.

Modeled after the author himself, Levin is a man who is engaged in a constant struggle for meaning in life. And it is through the pursuit of family life that meaning in life finally opens up to him. In contrast to Anna, who sets up a household with a man to whom she is not married, Levin enters into marriage with Kitty under the auspices of the Church. Despite his religious skepticism at the time, he embraces the prayers said at his wedding. When, for example, he hears the words "Give unto them perfect love, peace and help, O Lord," he is struck by them, thinking, "How did they know that it is help, yes, help, that one needs?" And when he hears the priest say, "Who unites them that were separated and who hast ordained for them an insoluble union in love," he realizes, "How profound those words are and how they fit with what one feels at this moment!" Thus, he sees that the words addressed to One who is above consecrate the marriage between two here below.

Levin continues to engage in a struggle for life's meaning in the face of death even after he is married. But, "thanks to his wife's presence," says Tolstoy, this struggle "did not drive him to despair: in spite of death he felt the need for living and loving." For his wife's presence signifies the presence of the sacred in his life, as it was invoked on the occasion of his marriage. Unlike Anna, who sought to be loved by Vronsky outside of marriage, Levin seeks to offer his love to the wife he has taken in holy matrimony, and that is what sustains him in life. Knowing his wife, he comes to know something of life's origin; moving toward life's origin, he moves toward a meaning in life that is stronger than death. Through love which is within the parameters of faith he realizes his potentialities and overcomes those alienating doubts which may hamper the birth of authentic actions within the course of one’s existence.

Tolstoy’s view of life was an integral one based on religious worldview that requires one to take the personal responsibility in becoming the man who was created in the image of God. This leap is what man is all about. To shrug from this responsibility is to expect miracle without believing them or hoping for love without loving anyone, as it was illustrated in the story of Anna. Faith is what moves this reality called human being. He says of faith the following:

Faith is the sense of life, that sense by virtue of which man does not destroy himself, but continues to live on. It is the force whereby we live. (Tolstoy cited by James, 1997.Lecture VIII)

To understand the spiritual nature of human existence that could die without faith one needs to grasp the logic of spirituality and lack of it (in our modern time) within human psyche and that is called conscience. On this Tolstoy has the following to say:

If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one's reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state. (1985. p 48)

It would not be a mistake to call the current state of humanity despite all the means available for hedonism (and as a matter of fact the ideology of most governments) we live under the spell of sadness and depression. This is what Tolstoy discerned and thought of it as a symptom for the lack of real being. Let him speak in his own words on this:

If you want to be happy, be. (1985. p 98)

To change the state of affairs which makes our life so miserable and full of sadness one should realize that faith is what makes life worth living and to achieve the state of faith two things are needed: a change to faith and a faith in change. The first one Tolstoy puts it in this way:

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. (1985. p 35)

In expounding the second one he argues in this fashion:

It seldom happens that a man changes his life through his habitual reasoning. No matter how fully he may sense the new plans and aims revealed to him by reason, he continues to plod along in old paths until his life becomes frustrating and unbearable - he finally makes the change only when his usual life can no longer be tolerated. (1985. p 91)

But to realize the reality of human self in the image of God one needs to grasp the meaning of reality that is not but based on Truth. On this Tolstoy has his own approach:

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. (1985. p 190)

But man needs to obtain wisdom for self-realization otherwise one would be swallowed by the dangers which envelop all aspects of human life generally and those who wish to embark upon a life based on God-consciousness. The tools one need for this sojourn is in Tolstoy’s view the following:

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. (1985. p 23)

Last but not least one can get a feel of the character of his philosophy in his own words which follow:

Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless. (1985. p 28)

References

James, W. The varieties of religious experience: A study in human nature. With a new introduction by Reinhold Niebuhr. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

Jordan, L. Leo Tolstoy: Where Love Is, There God Is Also. Revell, 2001.

Steiner, Edward A. Tolstoy the man. New York: Haskell House, 1969.

Tolstoy, L. Anna Karenina. Translated and with a foreword, by David Magarshack. New York: New American Library, 1961.

Tolstoy, L. Tolstoy on education: Tolstoy's educational writings, 1861-2; selected and edited by Alan Pinch and Michael Armstrong and translated by Alan Pinch. London: Athlone Press, 1982.

Tolstoy, L. War and Peace. Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude; edited by Henry Gifford. Oxford: O.U.P., 1983. 2 v. ( The World's classics).

Tolstoy, L. The Kingdom of God Is Within You. University of Nebraska Press, 1985.

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