Lev Tolstoi was not only one of the world's most famous writers, he was also a deeply concerned thinker and hugely influential critic of the Church whose impact was felt long after his death. For an entire generation, Tolstoi set the agenda for ethical and religious thought, in Russia and beyond. Most of Tolstoi's main ideas drew on his Christian heritage – selected and creatively combined. While he claimed that his life's work consisted of rediscovering the pure doctrine of Christ as it had been before the Church perverted it, in fact he radically reinterpreted the Christian faith he had encountered in his own life, Russian Orthodoxy. This book offers a new and comprehensive account of Tolstoi's relationship with the Orthodox Church and its teachings, and shows how the Russian Church reacted to the “Tolstoi phenomenon” and attempted to counteract the influence of this new “heretic" - with scant success.

'Pål Kolstø's absorbing book is something of an event in Tolstoy studies. It provides an extremely judicious account of Tolstoy's ostensibly unconventional Christianity, its connections to Russian Orthodoxy, and the reasons for Tolstoy's excommunication in 1903. … Balance is perhaps the best term with which to describe Kolstø's book, which through a sober, painstaking research effort liberates Tolstoy from the generalizations that have often been employed to describe his Christianity.' Jeff Love, The Russian Review

Pål Kolstø is Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Oslo. His previous publications include, as author or editor, ten academic books in English, and numerous journal articles.