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The Gospel in Brief

Reviewed by Chris Skilton.

Leo Tolstoy underwent a mid-life crisis (whilst writing Anna Karenina) and found solace in the teaching of Jesus. He was motivated to organise and harmonise the teaching of Jesus into twelve chapters, each with a word or phrase from the Lord’s Prayer as a guiding principle.

Tolstoy had no time for the church which he believed had distorted the true meaning of Christ’s message and blunted its power to change and transform lives. This work was originally conceived as part of a larger whole - part spiritual autobiography and part exposition of the real meaning of Christ’s teaching. In making his choice, Tolstoy omits the nativity of Christ, the miracles of Jesus and the resurrection and ends this work with the death of Christ.

Tolstoy does not only ‘cut and paste’, but interpolates along the way - the devil of Luke 4 becomes “the voice of his (Jesus’) flesh”; and the woman at the well in John 4 is enjoined to worship “in spirit and with works”. The twelve chapters of ‘text’ are followed by twelve parallel, shorter summaries in which Tolstoy reflects on the material he has gathered.

This work has curiosity value, but it’s difficult to know to whom apart from students of Tolstoy’s life and work. It was first published in 1893 in New York and may well have been republished now in the wake of interest in the excellent recent film of Tolstoy’s life, The Last Station.  Indeed, the new foreword is written by Jay Parini, the author of the novel on which the film is based.

This book is a good reminder of the perils of any retelling and reorganising of biblical texts, because of the artistic and personal judgements that will be made. At least Tolstoy was very explicit about his criteria and motives. Having read and been deeply moved by War and Peace, it is there I believe that Tolstoy’s lasting contribution to narrative and to the exploration of moral, ethical and spiritual questions is best played out.