TOLSTOY & SANTORUM

I know - just pairing those two names is a minor spiritual offense but I couldn't help wondering how Tolstoy's late religious belief compared with Frothy Fetus Boy.  I recall reading The Kreutzer Sonata, Resurrection and The Kingdom of God Is Within You and concluding that Tolstoy became somewhat Puritanical. John Gardner's On Moral Fiction (1978) reinforced this conclusion. According the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Tolstoy was NOT tied down by the myths of the Bible:

In brief, Tolstoy rejected all the sacraments, all miracles, the Holy Trinity, the immortality of the soul, and many other tenets of traditional religion, all of which he regarded as obfuscations of the true Christian message contained, especially, in the Sermon on the Mount. He rejected the Old Testament and much of the New, which is why, having studied Greek, he composed his own “corrected” version of the Gospels. For Tolstoy, “the man Jesus,” as he called him, was not the son of God but only a wise man who had arrived at a true account of life. Tolstoy’s rejection of religious ritual contrasts markedly with his attitude in Anna Karenina, where religion is viewed as a matter not of dogma but of traditional forms of daily life.

Stated positively, the Christianity of Tolstoy’s last decades stressed five tenets: be not angry, do not lust, do not take oaths, do not resist evil, and love your enemies.