Authors

Discussion

The presentation discusses Tolstoy's specific understanding of Christianity in the novel “Resurrection” (1899). I want to show how crucial for Tolstoy was his correspondence with Mind Cure preachers Lucy Mallory (1843-1920) and Alice Bunker Stockham (1833-1912), how important was it for his understanding of Christianity as a religion of peaceful social revolution. Mind Cure, one of the denominations within The Third Great Awakening preached mental healing practices. Its theorists treated physical ailments through positive thoughts or "affirmations”. The mental and the physical cure of individuals were to result in the cure of the society. Tolstoy came in touch with the ideas of Mind Cure in the early 1880s. The alleged existence of a world of spirit fascinated Tolstoy. According to the Mind-Cure-theorists the universal spirit and the human mind could determine the physical parameters of the material world and change the material world by spiritual influence. Reading of Mind-Cure-literature and corresponding with Mallory and Stockham helped Tolstoy to establish his own conception of Christianity as an inward-looking religion. The mind-cure-idea of the world of the spirit enabled Tolstoy to develop his own original concepts, such as the concept of specific “loving communication” (“любовное общение“), the idea of an inner god (“живший в нем бог») and the salvation of the world through the “absorption of evil by good” («поглощение зла добром»).