A Confession
Tolstoy narrates the loss of his childhood faith, his pursuit of fame and family happiness, and the crisis in which the prospect of death made every activity seem pointless. Neither experimental science nor philosophy, from Solomon to Schopenhauer, answers his question; he finds an answer in the faith by which ordinary working people live.
Understanding the text
Written between 1879 and 1882 as the opening of a larger body of religious writings, it was banned by the ecclesiastical censorship and first printed in Geneva in 1884. The narrative reconstructs the crisis in retrospect and should not be read as a diary.
Key points
- 01
The stopped life
Questions as simple as “Why?” and “What then?” bring a successful life to a halt, because no achievement survives the death that awaits him.
- 02
Four ways out
He observes that people of his circle escape through ignorance, epicurean distraction, suicide or a resigned continuation of life, and he rejects each of them.
- 03
Faith as the force of life
Rational knowledge yields only negation; faith is the knowledge of life’s meaning that allows people to live, though he later separates it from church doctrine.
Explore the ideas in depth
Meaning in the face of death
Follow the crisis of A Confession from the questions that halt a successful life to the faith by which working people live.
Situating the text
Written between 1879 and 1882 as the opening of a larger body of religious writings, it was banned by the ecclesiastical censorship and first printed in Geneva in 1884. The narrative reconstructs the crisis in retrospect and should not be read as a diary. Tolstoy narrates the loss of his childhood faith, his pursuit of fame and family happiness, and the crisis in which the prospect of death made every activity seem pointless. Neither experimental science nor philosophy, from Solomon to Schopenhauer, answers his question; he finds an answer in the faith by which ordinary working people live.
Following the arguments
The stopped life : Questions as simple as “Why?” and “What then?” bring a successful life to a halt, because no achievement survives the death that awaits him. Four ways out : He observes that people of his circle escape through ignorance, epicurean distraction, suicide or a resigned continuation of life, and he rejects each of them. Faith as the force of life : Rational knowledge yields only negation; faith is the knowledge of life’s meaning that allows people to live, though he later separates it from church doctrine.
Continuing the reading
Read the fable of the traveller hanging in the well, then follow how the final chapters distinguish the faith of the people from the teaching of the Church. Written between 1879 and 1882 as the opening of a larger body of religious writings, it was banned by the ecclesiastical censorship and first printed in Geneva in 1884. The narrative reconstructs the crisis in retrospect and should not be read as a diary.
Questions to carry into your reading
- Why can no worldly success answer the question “What then?”
- What does Tolstoy take from the faith of the peasants, and what does he reject in the teaching of the Church?
For Tolstoy, a meaning worth living by must withstand the certainty of one’s own death.
How to read it
Read the fable of the traveller hanging in the well, then follow how the final chapters distinguish the faith of the people from the teaching of the Church.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗