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Rating: 
Summary: Utopian faith
Review: "A Confession" is Tolstoy's interesting account of his rediscovery of faith. He sets out how religious belief is instilled into the young, and is then discarded. In middle age, Tolstoy found rational explanations of the meaning of life no longer sufficed: this drew him back to faith.
Whether or not one is convinced by Tolstoy's argument seems to me to be beside the point (although there's much in his rationale which seems odd and naive - "Those things in which people sincerely believe must be the truth" ??). Rather, it provides an insight into Tolstoy's development as a thinker and as a person.
The latter part of "A Confession", and much of the other works in this collection, are devoted to a savage indictment of organised religions, and of State- and class-based manipulation of religion for political ends. Tolstoy pines for a removal of such controls and a return to a "pure" version of Christianity from which peace and social justice would inevitably flow. This appears somewhat at odds with his belief in "The Confession" that the uneducated masses hold true religious faith. In the other essays, they are being manipulated cruelly. Nonetheless, these works are interesting because of their influence on others, such as Gandhi.
G Rodgers
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect
Review: Like always, Tolstoy is far wiser about existence than most other philosophers or scholars. This book is brilliant and inspiring. So his Christianity is not perfectly in line with yours? Well many people praise Jesus, they don't really live as he did. How dare Tolstoy be thoroughly honest about that! I myself am struggling to be more Christ-like, and its very hard. How dare some people claim that Tolstoy was not a true Christian. He struggled mightly his whole life to truly embrace his Christian upbringing. So what if he isn't a mindless automotone who blindly defends official doctrines. This Book helped me finally reclaim my faith in Catholicism. for other deep, meaningful works of the same caliber, I suggest War and Peace, Brothers Karamazov, or The Betrothed By Alessandro Manzoni.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: Like always, Tolstoy is far wiser about existence than most other philosophers or scholars. This book is brilliant and inspiring. So his Christianity is not perfectly in line with yours? Well many people praise Jesus, they don't really live as he did. How dare Tolstoy be thoroughly honest about that! I myself am struggling to be more Christ-like, and its very hard. How dare some people claim that Tolstoy was not a true Christian. He struggled mightly his whole life to truly embrace his Christian upbringing. So what if he isn't a mindless automotone who blindly defends official doctrines. This Book helped me finally reclaim my faith in Catholicism. for other deep, meaningful works of the same caliber, I suggest War and Peace, Brothers Karamazov, or The Betrothed By Alessandro Manzoni.
Rating:
Summary: A Search Unfulfilled
Review: This book includes some of Tolstoy's essays written during his time of deep internal spiritual struggle. Upon his renunciation of a life of aristocratic wealth and worldly pleasure, Tolstoy longed for the sense of true peace that he saw in the peasant class. Thus he embarked upon a search for meaning and happiness through a life of simple faith, manual labor, and poverty. He formulated his own Christian philosophy based on Christ's Sermon on the Mount stressing the existence of the Kingdom of God within the human heart, civil disobedience, and total pacifism. This "law of love" is explored deeply in confessional form throughout the works in this collection. Although this particular approach to living the life in Christ ultimately did not cultivate in Tolstoy the deep inner peace that he yearned for, I feel that many of his ideas can be beneficial to people both within the Church as well as not. Regardless of the validity of his doctrine, it cannot be denied that this is an authentic, genuine, and very human confession of a man searching for God and the meaning of life on earth. Although I personally disagree with many of Tolstoy's points, I still hold his Confession to be a universal work that deserves a fair exploration by all who have ever felt a similar need for inner peace and true reconciliation with God.
Rating:
Summary: A Search Unfulfilled
Review: This book includes some of Tolstoy's essays written during his time of deep internal spiritual struggle. Upon his renunciation of a life of aristocratic wealth and worldly pleasure, Tolstoy longed for the sense of true peace that he saw in the peasant class. Thus he embarked upon a search for meaning and happiness through a life of simple faith, manual labor, and poverty. He formulated his own Christian philosophy based on Christ's Sermon on the Mount stressing the existence of the Kingdom of God within the human heart, civil disobedience, and total pacifism. This "law of love" is explored deeply in confessional form throughout the works in this collection. Although this particular approach to living the life in Christ ultimately did not cultivate in Tolstoy the deep inner peace that he yearned for, I feel that many of his ideas can be beneficial to people both within the Church as well as not. Regardless of the validity of his doctrine, it cannot be denied that this is an authentic, genuine, and very human confession of a man searching for God and the meaning of life on earth. Although I personally disagree with many of Tolstoy's points, I still hold his Confession to be a universal work that deserves a fair exploration by all who have ever felt a similar need for inner peace and true reconciliation with God.
Rating:
Summary: Leo's crisis of faith...
Review: This is a very interesting book. Penned by one of the greatest writers in history, "A Confession..." by Leo Tolstoy provided me with great insight into his life, work, and relationships. I read this for a religion class in college and ended up keeping it. It is rather short and easy to read. Of interest to those who are seeking truth and those who have found it. It is fascinating to follow him thru his early religious experience, falling away from the church, and coming back to a unique faith in the end. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Leo's crisis of faith...
Review: This is a very interesting book. Penned by one of the greatest writers in history, "A Confession..." by Leo Tolstoy provided me with great insight into his life, work, and relationships. I read this for a religion class in college and ended up keeping it. It is rather short and easy to read. Of interest to those who are seeking truth and those who have found it. It is fascinating to follow him thru his early religious experience, falling away from the church, and coming back to a unique faith in the end. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I had hoped
Review: Tolstoy was a tremondous writer and intense human being. I approached this work expecting a great deal, and while it was certainly very much worth the effort, it was not as good as I hoped it would be.After acheiving fame, fortune, artistic achievement, family and everything else that most people long for, Tolstoy had a philosophical crisis in which he searched for the meaning of life. This is his chronicle of his despair and search, which ultimately ended in his acceptance of a unique brand of Christian socialism (not to mention ascetisim, vegetarianism, pacifism, etc.,). However, I thought much of the book, especially its sections on philosophy, to be rather poor in quality: either too simplisitc or complex but very poorly worded and expressed. While this book is ok, if anyone wanted to know Tolstoy's later philosophy of life I would recommend his later short works of fiction such as The Devil, the Kreutzer Sonata, and the Forged Coupon. They are masterpeices, while this work is simply interesting.
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