Website owner: James Miller
In passages in Anna Karinen, Tolstoy insinuates that
evangelical theology, "saved by faith and not by works", is a
sham. To what extent is he right?
Tolstoy implies that after a person has "given his heart to
Christ", been "born again", he still has the same bad
motivations, wrong spirit, and tendencies toward badness that
he had before and is simply deceiving himself when he thinks he
is transformed, a new creature led of God; that he becomes
pharisaical and self-righteous, that he pretends to be better
than others, on a higher level than others, but has the same
mean motivations and weaknesses; is guilty of rationalizing and
deceiving himself, putting a religious slant and justification
on everything but doing the same mean things; that he
exaggerates feelings and facts, pretends to feelings he doesn't
have, makes mystical claims such as "having a heart that is new
and filled with God" that are deceptive and untrue ---
resulting in self-deception and sham.
How much truth is there in this?
Anna Karinen, Penguin Classics, p.765-771
Oct 1976
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