Second Tolstoy
The Sermon on the Mount as Theo-tactics
by Steve Hickey
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
Very few if any have devoted more years to practicing and teaching others to practice the precepts of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount than Leo Tolstoy. He stands apart in the history of interpretation and has had enormous influence on others and other countries. Yet, Gandhi or others often get the glory. Tolstoy is remembered as a great writer, but his religious and philosophical works are by and large unknown or disparaged, even in scholarly Tolstoyan circles. His contribution is substantially under-appreciated and misunderstood. In Second Tolstoy: The Sermon on the Mount as Theo-tactics, Steve Hickey captures the particulars and dynamics of Tolstoy's interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount from a deliberately sympathetic vantage point. Underlying this project is shared belief with Tolstoy that the Sermon on the Mount is liveable and to be lived. While from the vantage point of traditional orthodoxy Tolstoy got much wrong, there remains a lack of appreciation for what he got right--radical obedience to the teachings of Jesus. A new vocabulary is proposed to more precisely capture Tolstoyan lived theology, namely the political and social expressions of Tolstoyan Christianity, with the hope that these theories and practices will gain a wider consideration, understanding, and following.
Steve Hickey (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is a former pastor and state legislator presently teaching at Alaska Christian College. His earlier books include Tolstoy’s Novel Idea: Obey the Sermon on the Mount and Obtainable Expectations: Timely Exposition of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Ways and Means: A Primer on Theo-tactics and the Emulation of Jesus is forthcoming.
“Everyone knows that Tolstoy’s nonviolence inspired Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and millions of others. Far fewer know how directly Tolstoy’s vision was rooted in the Sermon on the Mount, though thinkers as diverse as Bonhoeffer, Wittgenstein, and Dorothy Day certainly did. Steve Hickey’s recovery of this forgotten Christian tradition is a reminder that when we think of nonviolent movements for justice around the globe, we are in fact reconsidering the truth of the teaching of Jesus.”
—Brian Brock, Professor of Moral and Practical Theology, Department of Divinity and Religious Studies, King’s College, Aberdeen
“Hickey’s book takes Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as seriously as Tolstoy did. By rigorously explaining Tolstoy’s interpretation and locating it firmly within the broader Christian tradition despite Tolstoy’s idiosyncrasies, it makes a compelling case for fellow Christians to live by the ethics of the Sermon. A must-read for those curious about Tolstoy’s religious and political writings, and especially for those interested in Christian ethics.”
—Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Loughborough University
“This comprehensive study irradiates Tolstoy’s neglected religious writings with a new clarity, sympathy, and optimism. The great Russian novelist is presented as a major Christian commentator who deserves to be read by all ‘pastors and seminarians’ and included in the modern religious curriculum. Then comes the real challenge: the Sermon on the Mount should be seen as ‘liveable and to be lived.’ Steve Hickey will show you how.”
—Anthony Briggs, translator of War and Peace and Resurrection
“Second Tolstoy is a unique study in the faith and public theology of the nineteenth-century Russian novelist. Tolstoy attempted to live directly by the teachings of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. He had a central influence on Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. . . . I remember the young Steve, the bright young seminarian who planted a church in South Dakota and led it to become a church of more than a thousand persons while also serving in the South Dakota State Legislature. Stricken by a cruel and disabling affliction, he buried himself in Tolstoy. Now teaching in an Alaskan college, his impassioned spiritual research has given us not only a unique study in Tolstoy—Steve also enflames our own passion for Christ and his kingdom.”
—Paul Emanuel Larsen, President emeritus, The Evangelical Covenant Church
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