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Chapter 14 - Summary and Conclusions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2022

Pål Kolstø
Affiliation:
University of Oslo
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Summary

This final chapter draws together the various strands in my research, and links up to the explanatory matrixes introduced in Chapter 1. I show how the ambiguity towards the Russian Orthodoxy that runs like a red thread throughout Tolstoi’s life and work is mirrored in equally strong ambiguity towards Tolstoianism and its originator in the assessments of various Orthodox authors. For instance, in their anti-Tolstoian pamphlets they complained that he had “rediscovered a long-discovered America”; that he had come as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”; had “hidden behind a mask of goodness”; had “stolen the pearl of the Gospels,” and so on. In fact, all these laments and accusations implied that there was significant coincidence between Tolstoi’s teaching and Orthodox doctrine and religiosity. That is not to say that Tolstoi was an Orthodox in spite of himself. From a theological-dogmatic point of view, Tolstoi was undoubtedly a heretic. However, that term has no relevance for an inquiry into the history of ideas. My task here has been to move beyond such labels, looking for ideational and historical connections behind all the hostility and mutual recriminations between Russian Orthodoxy and Tolstoi’s heterodoxy. All this, my study has documented in full.

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Heretical Orthodoxy
Lev Tolstoi and the Russian Orthodox Church
, pp. 265 - 277
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Summary and Conclusions
  • Pål Kolstø, University of Oslo
  • Book: Heretical Orthodoxy
  • Online publication: 15 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009260374.015
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  • Summary and Conclusions
  • Pål Kolstø, University of Oslo
  • Book: Heretical Orthodoxy
  • Online publication: 15 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009260374.015
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Summary and Conclusions
  • Pål Kolstø, University of Oslo
  • Book: Heretical Orthodoxy
  • Online publication: 15 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009260374.015
Available formats
×