The Kingdom of God is Within You

What It's About

A long, searching argument that Christianity, taken at its word, is incompatible with violence, war and the coercive power of the state. Written between 1890 and 1893, the book grew out of the author's conviction that Jesus's command not to resist evil by force was meant literally, not as a poetic ideal. He builds his case through the Sermon on the Mount, a survey of earlier Christian and non-Christian pacifists, and a sharp critique of how churches and governments have justified violence. It was banned in Russia and first circulated abroad and in secret copies.

Key Concepts

The central idea is nonresistance to evil: that violence only multiplies violence, and that moral change comes from within the individual, not from laws or armies. From this follow his rejection of military service, oaths and courts, and his view that the institutional church has betrayed the teachings it claims to uphold. The book is widely seen as a foundation of Christian anarchism and a major influence on later nonviolent movements, and Gandhi cited it as a formative influence. Critics, religious and secular, have argued that its reading of the Gospels is selective and that its pacifism is impractical in a world of real aggression.

About the Author

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a Russian novelist and moral thinker born into the landed aristocracy. After a spiritual crisis in his fifties he turned to a radical, literal reading of the Gospels, gave up much of his wealth and status, and became one of the most influential religious and social critics of his age. His views brought him into conflict with both the Russian state and the Orthodox Church, which excommunicated him in 1901.

About This Edition

This is an 1894 translation by Constance Garnett.