by Leo Tolstoy
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Product Description
The Gospel in Brief is Leo Tolstoy's integration of the four biblical Gospels into a single account of the life of Jesus. Inspired in large measure by Tolstoy's meticulous study of the original Greek versions of the Bible, The Gospel in Brief is a highly original fusion of biblical texts and Tolstoy's own influential religious views. Tolstoy explains that his goal is a solution to "the problem of life," not an answer to theological or historical questions. As a result, he sets aside such issues as Jesus' genealogy and divinity, or whether Jesus in fact walked on water. Instead, he focuses on the words and teachings of Jesus, stripped of what Tolstoy regarded as the Church's distortions and focus on dogma and ritual. The result is a work that emphasizes the necessity of maintaining one's spiritual condition in a chaotic and indifferent world.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The Gospels In Brief, 2008-10-10
Tolstoy received great recognition for his early life fiction work but a cold shoulder after his religous works that came later in his life and out right hatred from some members of his own family. Having read all of his work over a period of ten years or so, I think The Gospels in Brief is probably the most most revealing of his convictions.For some, my advice is "Beware": this work can be a Monkey Trap.But maybe that was the intention of Christ; the meaning of surrender.You'll find the Gospel in Brief stands in stark contrast to contemporary Western ideals.You may think it a nutritious meal: not necessarily. It's a medicine with out a Doctors advice on dosage and possibly dangerous for the introverted.I can only say I find it profound.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Gospels according to Leo Tolstoy -- good way to get a perspective on life, 2008-03-06
Some nights ago, I picked up a copy of this book, which has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while.
I started into this by a separate interest in the syntopical reading of War and Peace, and that led me though many elements of Napoleonic history. Along the way, I added this book because of my growing interest in Tolstoy and his place in Russian literature. Hearkening back recently to my studies of the Russian language and political structure 40 years ago, this cumulative interest was pushed to the tipping point by the recent production of Utopia, the Tom Stoppard plays about the 19th century evolution of a Russian literary tradition after Tolstoy.
The bases of my review and recommendation are simply these:
1) Born into a Christian tradition, I was familiar with the Gospels, but I have to plead ignorance of them more or less because I have always approached the Bible as a mystical and mysterious document, revealed only with the help of clergy and only while sitting in the pews of my Episcopal Churches.
2) After my deeply moving reading of the book, it was revealed to me for the first time the essential elements of Christ's teaching, unadorned by evangelistic zeal or liturgical ritual. It provided me a justification to discuss the Bible, the teachings of Christ, and the search for the spirit in polite secular conversations.
I think The Gospels in Brief is a straight up and highly penetrating search for the truly integrated essence of the four canonical Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
I feel compelled to recommend the book, simply because it is the only book I have ever read from cover to cover when starting to read it myself at 2:30 AM as a sleeping pill. I was enthralled and I never put it down until finished at about 6:30 AM.
No matter how I may otherwise view the more elaborate telling of the complete Gospels, I found in Tolstoy that it is true that the spirit and body are separable, and that if properly observed, the spirit of God, nature, providence or the "force" is in fact already in all of us if we only know where to look and how to look.
My only regrets after reading the book are:
1) that I cannot translate the original Russian for myself, and
2) that I cannot do it all for myself based on the Latin text of the Gospels themselves.
Christopher Hitchins aside, the book has altered my thinking about spirit and its power. It leaves me, however, with the challenge of how much to follow the teachings in a literal or figurative sense. For now, I provisionally choose to believe that I do no one good to give away all my worldly belongings and ambitions in fact. I am convinced so far that if I use them all to feed the spirit, as well as the mind and body, I can reveal the spirit just as well -- maybe better.
It ultimately comes to this. This book strips the decisions of spiritual faith bare and allows me to gain perspective on the issues, confronting my soul and my life of the flesh. That is a pretty good accomplishment for Tolstoy. It warrants our attention no matter who we are or where we come from. The cost is small -- the benefits are big. In economic terms it is a high cost/benefit read. Especially if "the body is willing but the spirit is weak."
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Long Overdue Must Reading, 2008-01-07
I am 73 years old and wish I had read this book 50 years ago. It says it all.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A Revolutionary Book, 2006-07-14
Tolstoy's inspiring translation of the Gospels focuses on the problem of life while detailing Christ's instructions to man concerning the question of how we are to live. This work is revolutionary in the context that it summarizes all of Christ's instructions into 5 simple commands, all of which can be obeyed through one direct command: to love one another even as Christ has loved us.
In reading this book, I would recommend reading the body of the text before reading the introduction. As the text is potentially paradigm shifting for the reader, it is best to approach it with an open mind. Tolstoy's introduction, I have found, can be best appreciated after reading the text of the Gospel in Brief.
I would encourage everyone, Christian and non-Christian, to read this book to attain a clearer understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Beautiful Interpretation of the Gospels, 2006-04-12
I am, admittedly, a Tolstoy fan already, so I read this with a positive bias, but, that aside, this was one of the most powerful books I have read. I have always felt uncomfortable reading the New Testament because I can tell that liberties have been taken with the translation (just compare two versions) and I always think about all the people who have worked on it since its beginning. Tolstoy takes this into account and produces a condensed version that expresses the most important part of the NT: Christ's message. We are lucky enough to be the readers of a work that was written by a brilliant religous scholar. This is highly readable and simple, but at the same time, powerful and life changing. For people who are striving to be true Christian's in the way Christ intended without the murky trappings of organized churches, this is the interpretation of the New Testament to treasure.
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