Tolstói como pensador religioso: arte, religião e subjetividade

Abstract

Leo Tolstoy, the nineteenth century's Russian literary writer – author of classics of world literature, such as Anna Karenina – achieved, in addition to (and through) a memorable and unique literary production, the development of a religious thought of his own, which can represent a proposal for a consistent and practical Theory of Religion, consequent to his reinterpretation of the Christianity of the Church through the Christianity of the Gospels. This confrontation led him to reject the prevailing religious system, entering into friction with it, due to primarily ethical issues. In the context of a Russia haunted by the problem of God, it’s in the religion disseminated by the Church and authorized by the Government, that Tolstoy sees the principle for the configuration of the social problems experienced by nineteenth-century Russia. Notwithstanding the world's brokenness and insufficiency, and facing an emptiness of meaning that can only be consoled through love and justice, Tolstoy writes in search of an answer to the key question of his theological-religious-literary investigations: ‘How does one live, after all?’ This paper aims to demonstrate how his particular understanding of Christianity, and religion in general, appears in Tolstoy's mature art. We shall look at the systematization of his religious thoughts, starting from his critique of the bourgeois civilization, along with art as its language of resistance, and its vehicle for the dissemination of religious values. In order to achieve this, we will briefly compose the historical-philosophical and religious scenario of Russia at that time, followed by an overview of Romanticism and literature, demonstrating the cultural, social, historical, and philosophical conditions that challenged Tolstoy to navigate among the texts of his late phase: the essayistic ones, such as "My Religion (What I Believe)", "What is Art?" and "The Kingdom of God is Within You", in which he substantiates and systematizes religious values. Also, the literary ones, such as "The Death of Ivan Ilitch" and "Resurrection", in which he aims to point out – in the glimpse of his ‘art as religion/religion as art’ – the ethical problems of a society controlled by the Church and by the "values" of Modernity. Such digressions allow the unravel of his own concept of religion, answering the questions: What is religion for Tolstoy? What is art for Tolstoy?