In Memory of Leo Tolstoy

It was 110 years ago today that Count Lev Nikolayevich (Leo) Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, died at the age of 82, a month younger than I am now—and except for the mustache, my covid-19 pandemic beard now looks much like his as seen in the following picture taken near the end of his life. 

Remembering Tolstoy as a Novelist

Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828, about 200 kilometers south of Moscow. The third son of a landowning aristocrat, he inherited an estate consisting of a huge manor house and property with nearly 500 serfs.

After spending his young manhood in profligacy, in 1851 he joined the Russian army. He was an artillery officer during the Crimean War and was a part of the forces the British light brigade charged against, as described in my Oct. 20 post.

Reacting negatively toward that war, Tolstoy left the army and after traveling around Europe for a while, he began founding schools for peasant children in Russia. During the 1850s, even while still a soldier, he began to write novellas.

In the next decade, then, Tolstoy became a full-fledged novelist. War and Peace, his first, and very long and complicated, major novel, was published in 1869. It was followed by another lengthy novel, Anna Karenina, published in 1878.

Tolstoy wrote many novellas and literary works of many kinds, but his only other major novel was Resurrection, which was not published until 1899. Yes, with just three major works, and the third not widely read, Tolstoy is still recognized as one of the best novelists the world has ever seen.

Remembering Tolstoy as a Christian

Although baptized and brought up in the Russian Orthodox Church, Tolstoy wrote that by the age of 18 he had “lost all belief in what I had been taught.” Those are words from Confession (1882), the book he wrote in his early 50s about becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

So, for the last 30 years of his life, Tolstoy lived and wrote as a Christian believer—but not as a member of the Orthodox Church, which, in fact, excommunicated him in 1901.

Tolstoy’s writings during those years were largely of a man who sought to follow the teachings of Jesus, especially as found in the Sermon on the Mount.

Selections of Tolstoy’s Christian writings are published in a 325-page book under the title The Gospel in Tolstoy (2015), and I much enjoyed reading that book this fall.

“My Way to Faith,” the fourth chapter, is an excerpt from Confession in which Tolstoy wrote, “As long as I know God, I live.” Also, “To know God and to live come to one and the same thing. God is life.”

Chapter 20 is “What Is the Meaning of Life?” from one of Tolstoy’s most theological writings, The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894).

Remembering Tolstoy as a Teacher 

Although Tolstoy was never a teacher in a formal sense, through his writings some of the world’s best-known people, and a multitude of unknown people, have learned important lessons from him.

Tolstoy became an important teacher for Mahatma Gandhi, for Martin Luther King Jr., and for Dorothy Day. And although certainly not widely known, he was also a teacher for Nishida Tenko-san, the subject of my 2/24/13 blog post, and I encourage you to (re)read that post.

Actually, Tolstoy has had much influence in Japan and is still seen as a trustworthy teacher there. In 2018 a Japanese woman published an article titled “What Today’s Youth Can Learn From the Great Russian Writer Leo Tolstoy.” She mentions Nishida (1872~1968) in her thoughtful article.

So, even though he died 110 years ago, Tolstoy is still remembered and honored as a brilliant writer—and as one who by his life and writings taught what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

In Fond Memory of Tenko-san

Not many Americans know about him, but Nishida Tenko was an outstanding man who deserves to be known and appreciated more widely. He died 45 years ago this week (on 2/29/68) at the age of 96. Even though I never had the privilege of meeting him personally, I have very fond memories of the days I spent at Itto-en, the Christian/Zen commune he started on the eastern edge of Kyoto City, Japan.

As a young man (in 1904) Tenko-san had a deep religious experience, partly from reading Leo Tolstoy’s “Confession” (sometimes published under the title My Religion). Through Tolstoy, he was greatly influenced by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Partially because of that influence, later in the year of his “conversion” Tenko-san started Itto-en (“Garden of One Light”), which was finally able to acquire its first building in 1913.

Perhaps Tenko-san lived by the literal teachings of the Sermon on the Mount more than anyone after Francis of Assisi in the 13^th century. And for more than a century now, the community life and activities of Itto-en have demonstrated a fascinating blend of Jesus’ teachings and Zen Buddhist spirituality.

The best source for learning about Tenko-san and Itto-en in English is the book A New Road to Ancient Truth, first published in 1969. Mostly a collection of sayings by Tenko-san, the book’s entire “Author's Foreword” are words expressing one of his most profound insights: “In having nothing lies inexhaustible wealth.”

(There is also a website with information about Itto-en at this link.)

In the 1970s, just a few years after Tenko-san’s passing, I traveled to Itto-en with a few of my students for a four-day training session. It was a very memorable experience, one that I still treasure. There were lectures explaining Tenko-san’s teachings, and then we participants engaged in some of the same activities that those who lived at Itto-en did regularly.

Cleaning toilets (bathrooms) has been considered (especially in the past) a very disagreeable activity in Japan. As a means of fostering a spirit of humble service, Itto-en members (and participants in training sessions there) have systematically gone throughout the Kyoto area, knocking on doors and asking for the “privilege” of entering their houses in order to clean their toilets. That was, truly, an interesting experience. (Imagine the surprise of a Kyoto housewife opening her door to find a foreigner with a reddish beard, me, offering to clean her toilet!)

The next day we were taken to a nearby area where, with absolutely no money, we were told to offer our time in service, helping other people. If we were offered something to eat or drink, we could accept it. But we were not supposed to beg. I was fortunate to find a woman working in her rather large vegetable garden. She allowed me to use her hoe while she rested and gave me instructions on what to do. Then she graciously offered to fix me lunch, which I was more than happy to accept. (As we were eating her delicious meal, she told how her husband’s family had lived on this same property for more than 400 years!)

Trusting in God to provide for one’s needs, living in community and helping one another, and humbly serving others with a heart of compassion: these are principles that Tenko-san learned from the Sermon on the Mount and put into practice at Itto-en. Even though he died 45 years ago, Itto-en remains and still seeks to practice those principles. And there are people who still learn from, and many like me who fondly remember, the teachings and example of Tenko-san.