The conception of religion and the role of religious institutions according to Tolstoy

Abstract

The present work aims to present a reflection on the work My Religion, by Leo Tolstoy, highlighting the distinction that the author makes between the Christian religion and the stance of religious institutions towards biblical teachings. The writer was born into the Russian aristocracy and, from a young age, frequented environments considered intellectual. He enlisted in the Russian army alongside his brother, years later, however, he found weapons and violence boring and dedicated himself to his writing. Tolstoy reports in his work that, since he was young, he was a churchgoer and reader of the Gospel, being attracted to the doctrine of Christianity by the premises of love and altruism. Disillusioned with the feeling that there is something wrong in the way the Church treats and understands the Gospel, the writer proposes a reinterpretation of basic concepts of Christian doctrine, seeking a purer bias of understanding and, at the same time, highlighting the distinction between Church as an institution and Christian doctrine, in fact, as an existential possibility of life.