Abstract

The book examines the contemporary relevance of the last 30 years of Tolstoy's life. To understand this period, he needs to be regarded as a philosopher and social reformer. His "conversion” was a growing realization that the social system was unjust and oppressive and that the church, far from speaking out against it, sanctified it. He sought to relate Christian principles not only to the spiritual development of the individual but to the way in which society was organized and run. Tolstoy predicted unless there was economic reform, there would be a cataclysmic disaster--the First World War proved him right.