anti-authoritarianism

Tolstoy looked at Christ's actual teachings — turn the other cheek, no oaths, no judgement, the kingdom within — and asked the obvious question: how does a religion built on these become a partner to empires, executions, and conscription? His answer is unforgiving. The institutional Church, by aligning with state violence and hierarchy, has betrayed the figure it claims to follow. The book infuriated the Orthodox Church into excommunicating him. Decades later it landed in Gandhi's hands and helped end an empire.