ABSTRACT
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is especially dismissive of the various ways through which church theologians either reduce the importance of Jesus’ clearest instructions in the Sermon on the Mount, or modify them to mean something altogether different to their original meaning. At the root of Tolstoyan anticlericalism is a drive to scrutinise any source of distortion of reason. Tolstoy’s criticisms of the established church concern more that the alterations it makes to Jesus’ instructions. A final line of anticlerical Tolstoyan criticism needs to be considered: the church’s compromise with political power, which Tolstoy sees as both a cause and a symptom of the corruption of church theology. Tolstoy likes to depict the total transformation of Christianity symbolised by Constantine by pointing to the army. Tolstoy’s views on religion have been embraced by some but also criticised by others, whether through passing dismissal or more dedicated denial.
