LEO TOLSTOY'S RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY AND THE STOIC TRADITION

Abstract

The article investigates a contribution of the Stoic ideas to Leo Tolstoy's religious philosophy. The problem is considered in the context of the alleged “break” in the creative development of Leo Tolstoy in the late 1870s. Although Tolstoy had been familiar with the texts and ideas of the Stoics before this time and, probably, made some allusions to the Stoics in “War and Peace”, it is possible to say that in that time the Stoic ideas as such were not of significance for him. The thinker might have realized the deeper meaning of the Stoic tradition against the background of the teachings of Christ. Applying the methods of textual analysis, the author shows that after the conversion Tolstoy sought to use some aspects of the Stoic religious narrative (men's mind as a part of the divine one, the unity of the universe) as a support for his own pantheistic (panentheistic) views, in which both his ethical and social values were rooted.