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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
beautifully honest, strange, saddening at times, and uplifting.
Very eclesiastical.
Really enjoyed, simple but in a good way. Be careful this will make you think more then you may want to.
Really enjoyed, simple but in a good way. Be careful this will make you think more then you may want to.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
“Faith is the strength of life. If a man lives he believes in something. If he did not believe that one must live for something, he would not live. If he does not see and recognize the illusory nature of the finite, he believes in the finite; if he understands the illusory nature of the finite, he must believe in the infinite. Without faith he cannot live.”
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I'm not big on the "crisis of faith" kind of books, but it was Leo Tolstoy and I was trying to read something Christian for Christmas. "A Confession" was one of the best conversion stories I've read,which isn't all that shocking, since Leo Tolstoy could write up an insurance policy and make it interesting. Plus, who doesn't have time to read 80 pages or so?
What I liked about Tolstoy's story, is that he covered just about every possible objection an atheist could have with the existence of a God, and then STILL converted. A lot of conversion accounts I read claim that they "thought it through logically", but when I read their reasoning, I find it appallingly faulty. Tolstoy fully sized up the problem with belief, and then resolved this problem in a very interesting way (which I think of as almost a "plot twist", so I won't spoil it). That philosophical leap, gets his foot in God's door, and then he wrestles his way towards Christianity for the last 20 pages.
If you're all about books where someone struggles through a dark night of the soul, then this book is for you. If you're merely interested in Tolstoy, "A Confession" gives an excellent glimpse into his life and philosophy.
P.S. This might sound crazy or illogical if you haven't read the book, but I thought Tolstoy did a great job of identifying and expounding upon the main shortcoming of science. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me, but where I am right now, this rings true for me:
"A plain, reasonable working man supposes, in the old way which is also the common-sense way, that if there are people who spend their lives in study, whom he feeds and keeps while they think for him—then no doubt these men are engaged in studying things men need to know; and he expects of science that it will solve for him the questions on which his welfare, and that of all men, depends. He expects science to tell him how he ought to live: how to treat his family, his neighbours and the men of other tribes, how to restrain his passions, what to believe in and what not to believe in, and much else. And what does our science say to him on these matters?
It triumphantly tells him: how many million miles it is from the earth to the sun; at what rate light travels through space; how many million vibrations of ether per second are caused by light, and how many vibrations of air by sound; it tells of the chemical components of the Milky Way, of a new element—helium—of micro-organisms and their excrements, of the points on the hand at which electricity collects, of X rays, and similar things.
“But I don't want any of those things,” says a plain and reasonable man—“I want to know how to live.”
What I liked about Tolstoy's story, is that he covered just about every possible objection an atheist could have with the existence of a God, and then STILL converted. A lot of conversion accounts I read claim that they "thought it through logically", but when I read their reasoning, I find it appallingly faulty. Tolstoy fully sized up the problem with belief, and then resolved this problem in a very interesting way (which I think of as almost a "plot twist", so I won't spoil it). That philosophical leap, gets his foot in God's door, and then he wrestles his way towards Christianity for the last 20 pages.
If you're all about books where someone struggles through a dark night of the soul, then this book is for you. If you're merely interested in Tolstoy, "A Confession" gives an excellent glimpse into his life and philosophy.
P.S. This might sound crazy or illogical if you haven't read the book, but I thought Tolstoy did a great job of identifying and expounding upon the main shortcoming of science. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me, but where I am right now, this rings true for me:
"A plain, reasonable working man supposes, in the old way which is also the common-sense way, that if there are people who spend their lives in study, whom he feeds and keeps while they think for him—then no doubt these men are engaged in studying things men need to know; and he expects of science that it will solve for him the questions on which his welfare, and that of all men, depends. He expects science to tell him how he ought to live: how to treat his family, his neighbours and the men of other tribes, how to restrain his passions, what to believe in and what not to believe in, and much else. And what does our science say to him on these matters?
It triumphantly tells him: how many million miles it is from the earth to the sun; at what rate light travels through space; how many million vibrations of ether per second are caused by light, and how many vibrations of air by sound; it tells of the chemical components of the Milky Way, of a new element—helium—of micro-organisms and their excrements, of the points on the hand at which electricity collects, of X rays, and similar things.
“But I don't want any of those things,” says a plain and reasonable man—“I want to know how to live.”
A fantastically short autobiographical reflection on religion.
This left me breathless. It is among the most powerful things I have ever read. I do not know what I think of it's conclusions but I'm not sure I care.