Leo Tolstoy
Circle of Reading
Translated by Dmitry Fadeyev

April 17

Christianity teaches of the divine in the human being.

1

Christianity is a simple thing, very simple: love for other people, love for God. Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father; live in God, i.e. do the best deeds in the best way possible and for the best reasons.

All this is very simple, a small child can understand it; and it is so beautiful that a great intellect could not come up with anything better.

— Parker

2

From Moses to Christ, great intellectual and religious development took place among individuals and nations. From the time of Christ until now, this movement, both in individuals and in nations, was even more significant. Old delusions were discarded and new truths entered the consciousness of humankind. A single human being cannot be as great as humankind. Even if a great man is so far ahead of his peers that they cannot understand him, a time will come when first they catch up to him, then overtake him, and then leave him so far behind that they in turn become so incomprehensible to those who now stand in the place where the former great man stood, and then a new great man is needed, and he appears and reveals the path ahead.

— Parker

3

Without a clear understanding of the meaning of one’s life, without that which is called faith, a human being can renounce at any moment everything he had been living for and begin living in the name of that which he had previously cursed.

4

The final goal of a human being’s life is inaccessible to him. The only thing he can know is its direction.

5

The essence of all religious teachings consists in love. The peculiarity of the Christian teaching of love consists in the fact that the main condition of love is clearly and precisely defined, a condition whose violation destroys the possibility of love.

This condition is non-resistance to evil with violence.

6

Christian love flows from the consciousness of the unity of the divine source in you and in all people, and not only in people, but in all living things.


If you want tranquility and strength, fortify your faith.

Themes & Sources