Book contents
- Heretical Orthodoxy
- Ideas in Context
- Heretical Orthodoxy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Tolstoi as a Practicing Orthodox
- Chapter 3 Tolstoi’s Examination of Dogmatic Theology
- Chapter 4 Tolstoi, Orthodoxy and Asceticism
- Chapter 5 Lev Tolstoi and Orthodox Forms of Spirituality: Elders
- Chapter 6 Tolstoi and the Wanderer Tradition in Russian Culture
- Chapter 7 Tolstoi and the Ideal of “the Holy Fool”
- Chapter 8 Father Sergius: Kasatskii’s Spiritual Journey to Holy Foolishness
- Chapter 9 Tolstoi and the Social Ideal of the Eastern Church: John Chrysostom
- Chapter 10 The Church Mounts a Counterattack: Threat Perceptions and Combat Strategies
- Chapter 11 Between “Almost Orthodox” and “Antichrist”: Images of Lev Tolstoi in Russian Orthodox Polemics
- Chapter 12 The “Excommunication” and Its Aftermath
- Chapter 13 A Requiem for a Heretic? The Controversy over Lev Tolstoi’s Burial
- Chapter 14 Summary and Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2022
- Heretical Orthodoxy
- Ideas in Context
- Heretical Orthodoxy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Tolstoi as a Practicing Orthodox
- Chapter 3 Tolstoi’s Examination of Dogmatic Theology
- Chapter 4 Tolstoi, Orthodoxy and Asceticism
- Chapter 5 Lev Tolstoi and Orthodox Forms of Spirituality: Elders
- Chapter 6 Tolstoi and the Wanderer Tradition in Russian Culture
- Chapter 7 Tolstoi and the Ideal of “the Holy Fool”
- Chapter 8 Father Sergius: Kasatskii’s Spiritual Journey to Holy Foolishness
- Chapter 9 Tolstoi and the Social Ideal of the Eastern Church: John Chrysostom
- Chapter 10 The Church Mounts a Counterattack: Threat Perceptions and Combat Strategies
- Chapter 11 Between “Almost Orthodox” and “Antichrist”: Images of Lev Tolstoi in Russian Orthodox Polemics
- Chapter 12 The “Excommunication” and Its Aftermath
- Chapter 13 A Requiem for a Heretic? The Controversy over Lev Tolstoi’s Burial
- Chapter 14 Summary and Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Introduction presents the main scope and ideas of the book and discusses some theoretical approaches to the study of continuity and rupture in intellectual history, such as semiotics and sociology of knowledge, which can help to explain Tolstoi’s relationship to the Russian Church and to the religious environment in which he grew up. Although the impressions Tolstoi received from various non-Russian sources were indeed important, no thinker can be significantly influenced by all national cultures and all time periods. In important respects, the culture in which one has grown up retains cognitive primacy also for those who rebel against it. Any church influences its opponents both positively and negatively – by the elements they take over from it (usually without acknowledging this), and since such rebellion is provoked by precisely the features that are characteristic of that particular. Tolstoi was deeply imbued with Orthodox ways of thinking, and incorporated important elements of Orthodox spirituality into his own religious system. The elements he selected from Orthodox spirituality underwent a radical change of meaning when applied to his message. Thus, in determining the relationship of Tolstoi to the Orthodox Church we must emphasize both continuity and break at the same time.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Heretical OrthodoxyLev Tolstoi and the Russian Orthodox Church, pp. 1 - 16Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022