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The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus (Harper Perennial Modern Thought) Paperback – 1 Mar. 2011
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“The Gospel in Brief lives at the center of Leo Tolstoy’s thinking about the meaning of life. ... Beautifully translated by Dustin Condren. ... Although little known, this book remains hugely important.” --Jay Parini, author of The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Last Year
The most celebrated novelist of all time, the author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace, retells "the greatest story ever told," integrating the four Gospels into a single twelve-chapter narrative of the life of Jesus. Based on his study of early Christian texts, Leo Tolstoy's remarkable The Gospel in Brief—virtually unknown to English readers until this landmark new translation by Dustin Condren—makes accessible the powerful, mystical truth of Jesus's spiritual teaching, stripped of artificial church doctrine. "If you are not acquainted with The Gospel in Brief," wrote the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose life was profoundly influenced by it, "then you cannot imagine what an effect it can have upon a person."
“A fresh translation destined to introduce a new generation to a fuller understanding of Tolstoy’s mind.” --Kirkus Reviews
“Dustin Condren captures, in this fresh idiomatic translation, the dazzlingly audacious achievement of The Gospel in Brief, Tolstoy’s daring synthesis the New Testament accounts of Jesus.” --Edward E. Ericson, Jr., editor of The Solzhenitsyn Reader
“Newly translated by Dustin Condren, Tolstoy’s Gospel in Brief offers us a Jesus stripped of the overlay of Christian dogma and ancient metaphysics: his Jesus confronts readers with a real challenge and a call to change their lives.” --George Pattison, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford, and canon of Christ Church Cathedral
- Part of series
- Length
224
Pages
- Language
EN
English
- Publication date
2011
March 1
- Dimensions
12.7 x 1.4 x 18.1
cm
- ISBN-10006199345X
- ISBN-13978-0061993459
- Lexile measure1020L
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Review
“Tolstoy’s Gospel in Brief virtually kept me alive. If you are not acquainted with it, then you cannot imagine what an effect it can have upon a person.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein
“The Gospel in Brief lives at the center of Leo Tolstoy’s thinking about the meaning of life. In this absorbing volume -- beautifully translated by Dustin Condren -- the greatest of Russian authors revisits the Gospels with characteristic boldness, pushing through to the fiery core of Christianity. Although little known, this book remains hugely important.” — Jay Parini, author of The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Last Year
“Dustin Condren captures, in this fresh idiomatic translation, the dazzlingly audacious achievement of The Gospel in Brief, Tolstoy’s daring synthesis the New Testament accounts of Jesus.” — Edward E. Ericson, Jr., editor of The Solzhenitsyn Reader
“A fascinating and thoroughly unorthodox rewriting of the Gospels and restatement of Christianity.” — Booklist
“This is the first English translation in more than a century; Condren worked from Tolstoy’s original version and restored material deleted in previous translations. The result is not unlike Hermann Hesse’s ‘Siddhartha’ — the story of a life that illustrates a path.” — Los Angeles Times
“Newly translated by Dustin Condren, Tolstoy’s Gospel in Brief offers us a Jesus stripped of the overlay of Christian dogma and ancient metaphysics: his Jesus confronts readers with a real challenge and a call to change their lives.” — George Pattison, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford, and canon of Christ Church Cathedral
“A fresh translation destined to introduce a new generation to a fuller understanding of Tolstoy’s mind.” — Kirkus Reviews
From the Back Cover
The most celebrated novelist of all time retells "the greatest story ever told," integrating the four Gospels into a single twelve-chapter narrative of the life of Jesus. Based on his study of early Christian texts, Leo Tolstoy's remarkable The Gospel in Brief—virtually unknown to English readers until this landmark new translation by Dustin Condren—makes accessible the powerful, mystical truth of Jesus's spiritual teaching, stripped of artificial church doctrine. "If you are not acquainted with The Gospel in Brief," wrote the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose life was profoundly influenced by it, "then you cannot imagine what an effect it can have upon a person."
About the Author
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is the author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and other classics of Russian literature.
Product details
- Publisher : Harper Perennial; 1st edition (1 Mar. 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 006199345X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061993459
- Dimensions : 12.7 x 1.42 x 18.08 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 346,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 308 in New Testament Commentaries
- 688 in Religious Philosophy (Books)
- 759 in Bible References
- Customer reviews:
About the author
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote two of the great novels of the nineteenth century, War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
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As an example, for those who know about the miracle of the loaves and fishes, where Jesus miraculously makes more - Tolstoy explains it perfectly. It wasn't a miracle. It's a parable. It means that if we all share and share alike, we'll find we are in abundance. When one starts to give, other will too, and we'll find ourselves richer than ever before. The church's gospel just makes it seem like it was a cheap magic trick.
There are many parts like this, which re-treads old ground and reinterprets what Jesus 'really' meant. I'm not christian myself, but i do believe that Jesus was indeed a very important spiritual leader and really had nothing to do in connection with the Torah, the old Testament or the Qu'ran. He was above all that, and this book will show you why.
A powerful book that will change how you view and interact with mankind.
In my ongoing attempts at trying to unravel the mystery of Jesus Christ myself, a challenge made more difficult through the man-made traditions and half-truths of the Church, I stumbled upon the works of Tolstoy, a man it seems, that was after my own heart. I purchased The Gospel in Brief along with The Kingdom of God is Within You and headed off to Turkey during the summer of 2012. There is something to be said for sitting with a traditional paperback book under the shade of palm trees, all the while hearing the Adhan (Islamic call to prayer) in the distance.
Tolstoy's Christ figure in The Gospel in Brief championed the idea of turning the other cheek and giving away one's possessions for the greater good, with Tolstoy taking great precision in reviving the Christ figure that "churchianity" had locked away for so long.
The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, known for recounting most of the same events shared in the other gospels, are combined together in Tolstoy's book creating one continuous story. Some stories, especially those found in the Gospel of John that are not found in the others, are of course included here too, but Tolstoy's main purpose for combining all the Gospels together, was to give both himself and the reader a reasonably clear picture of what transpired. Extracting little details from one Gospel that may not have been included in another, and then piecing them into one fully detailed event brings us, finally, a more full narrative story. To be honest, it was always an idea that I hoped someone may eventually run with, and it is quite possible that many books have attempted this long before now, but to my knowledge Tolstoy, if not the only author to attempt this idea, is most certainly the grandfather of such an idea.
One humorous thing the Christian anarchist Tolstoy injected into his book is that rather than call the Pharisees by their name, he instead called them "The Orthodox", as it appears he felt that the Orthodox Church in his day was acting in the same way as the Pharisees in Christ's day.
Another thing I should point out about The Gospel in Brief is that Tolstoy is not a believer in miracles and believes that these things were added to the Gospels (and the Old Testament) to make it into a kind of "superstitious" dogma. So for example, there is no virgin birth, turning water to wine and so on. Most of it is explained away rationally. While I do respect Tolstoy's view on this, I personally, having undertaking extensive research over the past few years into alleged human abilities, cannot entirely agree on his outlook. In saying that, I am also of the impression that it is not at all necessary to believe in the miracles of Christ to understand the overall point of his teachings, since his teachings are based on giving your excess wealth to the poor and loving your enemies, thus creating peace and understanding for all (sadly perhaps a miracle in itself).
For example, if the apparently unbelievable feats performed by Christ were enough to stop someone from being inspired both by his exemplary life and his teachings of seeking peace for all men, then the miracles themselves have become a hindrance, something which Tolstoy was quite adamant about.
Each chapter begins with Tolstoy's commentary on why he has Jesus say a particular thing or react in a certain way, giving us a more full-bodied understanding of, possibly, how we were originally meant to read the original Gospels. All in all an enjoyable read.
Some of the reviews have mentioned typos. I have not noticed too terribly many, at least not enough to distract me from reading it with ease
This is a book well worth reading and gives a fresh approach to the essential teachings of Jesus. This is a challenge to fundamentalist Christians and to the various Catholic and Orthodox churches.