The Kingdom of God Is Within You

The 1st edition of The Kingdom of God Is Within You, 1894.

The Kingdom of God Is Within You (Russian: Царство Божие внутри вас [Tsarstvo Bozhiye vnutri vas]) is the non-fiction magnum opus of Leo Tolstoy and was first published in Germany in 1894, after being banned in his home country of Russia. It is the culmination of thirty years of Tolstoy's Christian anarchist thinking, and lays out a new organization for society based on a literal Christian interpretation.

Reasoning

The title of the book is taken from Luke 17:21. In the book Tolstoy speaks of the principle of non-violent resistance when confronted by violence, as taught by Jesus (see Christian pacifism). Tolstoy sought to separate Orthodox Russian Christianity (which was merged with the state) from what he believed was the true gospel of Jesus Christ specifically the Sermon on the Mount.

Tolstoy takes the viewpoint that all governments who wage war are an affront to Christian principles. When Christ says to turn the other cheek, Tolstoy asserts that he means simply that and rejects the interpretations of Roman and medieval scholars who attempted to limit its scope, writing:

“How can you kill people, when it is written in God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not murder’?”

Tolstoy presented excerpts from magazines and newspapers relating various personal experiences, and gave keen insight into the history of non-resistance as being professed by a minority of believers from the very foundation of Christianity. In particular, he confronts those who argue that such a change to a non-violent society would be disastrous with the following recourse:

“That this social order with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies, and wars is necessary to society; that still greater disaster would ensue if this organization were destroyed; all this is said only by those who profit by this organization, while those who suffer from it – and they are ten times as numerous – think and say quite the contrary.”

Tolstoy recounted challenges by people of all classes that his views on non-resistance were wrong, but argued that no matter how the challengers tried to attack the doctrine, its essence could not be overcome. He advocated non-violence as a solution to nationalist woes and as a means for seeing the hypocrisy of the church. In reading Jesus' words in the Gospels, Tolstoy notes that the modern church is a heretical creation:

“Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church.”

Tolstoy's relationship with Mohandas Gandhi

The 1st English edition of The Kingdom of God Is Within You.

Mohandas Gandhi wrote in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Part II, Chapter 15) that this book "overwhelmed" him and "left an abiding impression." Gandhi listed Tolstoy's book, as well as John Ruskin's Unto This Last and the poet Shrimad Rajchandra (Raychandbhai), as the three most important modern influences in his life. Reading this book opened up the mind of the world-famous Tolstoy to Gandhi, who was still a young protester living in South Africa at the time.

In 1908 Tolstoy wrote, and Gandhi read, A Letter to a Hindu, which outlines the notion that only by using love as a weapon through passive resistance could the native Indian people overthrow the colonial British Empire. This idea ultimately came to fruition through Gandhi's organization of nationwide non-violent strikes and protests during the years circa 1918-1947. In 1909, Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy seeking advice and permission to republish A Letter to a Hindu in his native language, Gujarati. Tolstoy responded and the two continued a correspondence until Tolstoy's death in 1910. The letters concern practical and theological applications of non-violence, as well as Gandhi's wishes for Tolstoy's health. Tolstoy's last letter was to Mohandas Gandhi.

Many consider The Kingdom of God is Within You to be a key text for Tolstoyan, Christian anarchist, and nonviolent resistance movements worldwide.

See also

• A Letter to a Hindu
• Christian anarchism
• The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Mahatma Gandhi).
• Russian Orthodox Church
• The Sermon on the Mount
• Turn the other cheek

Further reading

• Milivojevic, D. Leo Tolstoy and the Oriental Religious Heritage. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

External links

• The Kingdom of God Is Within You — the complete text by Project Gutenberg
• The Kingdom of God Is Within You — complete HTML text by Kingdom Now
• The Kingdom of God Is Within You — complete HTML version, with links to Wikipedia and to Tolstoy's source material
• The Kingdom of God Is Within You - Complete free audiobook version at project LibriVox
• Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind- A Manifesto for Nonviolence: Part 1 Part 2