The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / MiscellaniesTolstoy, Leo, graf
Religion
The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / Miscellanies
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Russian literature -- Translations into English
According to this teaching it is not important for a man to profess
in life the truth that has been revealed to him, and so inevitably
be compelled to realize it in life, or at least not to do acts which
are contrary to the professed truth; not to serve the government
and not to increase its power, if he considers this power to be
deleterious; not to make use of the capitalistic structure, if he
considers this structure to be irregular; not to show any respect
for various ceremonies, if he considers them to be a dangerous
superstition; not to take part in the courts, if he considers
their establishment to be false; not to serve as a soldier; not
to swear; in general, not to lie, not to act as a scoundrel, but,
without changing the existing forms of life, and submitting to them,
contrary to his opinion, he should introduce liberalism into the
existing institutions; coöperate with industry, the propaganda of
socialism, the advancement of what is called the sciences, and the
diffusion of culture. According to this theory is it possible,
though remaining a landed proprietor, a merchant, a manufacturer,
a judge, an official, receiving a salary from the government, a
soldier, an officer, to be, withal, not only a humane man, but even
a socialist and revolutionist.
Hypocrisy, which formerly used to have a religious foundation in
the doctrine about the fall of the human race, about redemption,
and about the church, in this teaching received in our time a new
scientific foundation, and so has caught in its net all those men
who from the degree of their development can no longer fall back on
the religious hypocrisy. Thus, if formerly only a man who professed
the ecclesiastic religious doctrine could, considering himself with
it pure from every sin, take part in all kinds of crimes committed
by the government, and make use of them, so long as he at the same
time fulfilled the external demands of his profession, now all men,
who do not believe in the church Christianity, have the same kind of
a worldly scientific basis for recognizing themselves as pure, and
even highly moral men, in spite of their participation in the evil
deeds of the state and of their making use of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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