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 8 - Father Sergius: Kasatskii’s Spiritual Journey to Holy Foolishness
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
In the short story Father Sergius, Tolstoi tells about the guards officer Kasatskii who renounces his military career, enters a monastery, then leaves it again in order to become hermit. Finally, he ends up as a simple vagabond. The drama unfolds on the inner plane, but is reflected in three incidents when Kasatskii alias Father Sergius suddenly breaks away from his former life and finds new meaning in an existence that coincides with four traditional forms of Orthodox piety; monasticism, eldership, holy wandering. He ends up in holy foolishness, which combines elements of them all, as a life in the world, but not of the world. The life of Kasatskii alias Father Sergius is a circular motion. He starts in the world, withdraws from it, and finally returns to it. However, he has not come back to the starting point, for he is now equipped with new insights about God and life. These varieties of piety prove to be, with the words of Søren Kierkegaard, "stages on the path of life," hierarchically arranged. Despite the abrupt breaks between them, they must be understood as parts of a developmental process, all contributing to a cumulative maturation.
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- Heretical OrthodoxyLev Tolstoi and the Russian Orthodox Church, pp. 137 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022