Good

In the external world of nature, among plants and animals, there is neither good nor evil; nor is there good and evil in the living, unthinking body of a human being. This boundary separating good from evil begins in the human soul through the person’s capacity for consciousness and understanding.

In the human soul from youth onward there goes on an unceasing struggle with evil. And there, and only there, in one’s own soul, is the struggle with evil both proper to human beings and fruitful. The struggle with evil outside this realm is neither proper to human beings nor fruitful. This is exactly what Christ’s commandment of non-resistance to evil by force says. The commandment of non-resistance to evil with evil precisely and clearly defines the place for the struggle with evil. That place is within oneself.

For every rational person, the limits of force are bounded by one’s own body, one’s own flesh, because in this coercion of spirit over flesh consists the work and nourishment of the soul. Another person, another’s flesh, has its own owner of the same kind, and force directed at it has no rational justification; it is unnecessary. The teaching of non-resistance to evil has precisely this purpose—the purpose of revealing the needlessness of force directed at another.

Who would venture to assert that a person cannot, by his own will, manage himself on his own, that he cannot understand and do all that is required of him for the life of the world in which he lives? To assert this is to deny the freedom of life given by God to human beings, the freedom to save or ruin oneself, to deny one’s rational nature—to assert this is to deny the human being. A person’s will may extend beyond the bounds of his own being, but who would dare assert that it is necessary there? Who would dare assert that the life of the world could suffer from his, the human being’s, personal non-interference? To assert this is to speak of the insufficiency of God’s will, to deny God. The evil of the world consists precisely in this: that people extend their will beyond the bounds of their own being, that is, they place their will in place of God’s will. This sacrilege is revealed by the commandment of non-resistance to evil.

Success justifies the deed: you won, so you were right; truth is in victory. Such is the fleshly, animal, pagan understanding of truth—an understanding according to which the word “truth” is merely an empty sound. “What is truth? They’ll hang you yet, along with your truth!” said Pilate. But Christ sees truth, and sees it at the opposite end: the one who is vanquished is in the right. If you personally, in a struggle with another person, have conquered by force, then know that you are certainly in the wrong, that truth is not on your side. Truth is in the one who is vanquished; in the one who is vanquished is God; the one who is vanquished embodies the concept of God’s dominion—the first and fundamental concept of a rational being. Such is the position of a human being on earth, and the only way out of this seemingly sad situation is not to resist evil, not to struggle with another person, to acknowledge oneself as forever vanquished in advance, to be forever vanquished by God—a path that is illuminated and glorified by true religion, by the understanding of human life.

Non-resistance, by eliminating struggle, frees the possibility and likelihood of peace, clears the field for a different, spiritual interaction, in which there are other powers and other interests. The calling of a human being on earth, as shown in the Gospel by the temptation of Jesus by the devil and the conversation with Nicodemus, consists precisely in freeing and glorifying above all else in the world of people the divine capacity of human beings to be conscious and to understand—to free and glorify this rational consciousness, this Son of Man, this Son of God in human beings. Not to resist means: to awaken, to resurrect the Son of God, to resurrect Christ; to resist means: to oppress, to crucify him. A human being is a rational creature. The good of a rational creature lies in the triumph and dominion of reason. For the triumph and dominion of reason, however, there must first of all be the calming of the passions of the flesh. And just as in the life of one individual, so too in the social life of nations, the dominion of reason can never be established on the soil of passions, pride, judgment, power, and violence. Through the commandment of non-resistance to evil, the realization in life of this axiom of wisdom is achieved.

Understanding and consciousness have been placed by God in the souls of all people, and the Gospel urges us to value this above all else. “Whoever says to his brother ‘Raca’ is liable to the council, and whoever says ‘You fool!’ is liable to the fire of Gehenna.” Only human souls find in consciousness and understanding unity and love; in the external world, however, each creature loves itself more than all the rest of the world. The commandment of non-resistance to evil, by defining the place for the struggle with evil, resolves the question of the eternal contradiction between the external world of discord and enmity and the spiritual world of unity and love, uniting them into one kingdom of God, as Jesus inspiringly said to Nathanael: “From now on the boundary between heaven and earth is abolished, and the powers of heaven will serve human beings just as the powers of earth serve them” (John 1:51).

—Buka

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Translator’s Notes:

• “Buka” was a pseudonym used in The Circle of Reading, though the authorship behind it is uncertain. The philosophical depth and characteristic themes (non-resistance, the struggle within the soul, the contrast between external force and spiritual transformation) are quintessentially Tolstoyan.
• The reference to Pilate (“What is truth?”) echoes John 18:38 and represents the worldly, cynical dismissal of absolute moral truth.
• The paradoxical assertion that “the one who is vanquished is in the right” inverts conventional thinking about power and success, reflecting Christ’s teaching that the last shall be first.
• “Raca” (Matthew 5:22) is an Aramaic term of contempt meaning something like “empty-head” or “worthless one.”
• The paraphrase of John 1:51 (“You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”) is freely rendered to emphasize Tolstoy’s interpretation: the abolition of the division between heaven and earth through the spiritual transformation of humanity.
• The “axiom of wisdom” (aksioma mudrosti) reflects Tolstoy’s conviction that non-resistance is not merely a moral teaching but a rational, self-evident truth about the nature of human life.