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Title: Father Sergius
Series:
(The Russians)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Translator:
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Classic
Pages: 56
Words:
17K
Publish: 1911
(posthumously)
Two stars of mystical, infantile, feelings oriented theology. This really seems to sum up Russian Orthodoxy as portrayed by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
John MacArthur, a New Testament scholar and preacher (who has recently passed away), has talked about Mysticism a lot over the years. He’s had the following to say:
“Mysticism is the idea that direct knowledge of God or ultimate reality is achieved through personal, subjective intuition or experience apart from, or even contrary to, historical fact or objective divine revelation…
...People begin to pursue paranormal experiences, supernatural phenomena, and special revelations—as if our resources in Christ weren’t enough. They spin their views of God and spiritual truth out of their own self-authenticated, self-generated feelings, which become more important to them than the Bible.”
I only recently came across MacArthur (recently, as in the last decade), so he was not an influence on me in my growing up years. But I certainly agree with his assessment of mysticism and how it has infiltrated much of the protestant church here in America.
Don’t get me wrong, God gave us our feelings. But we are NOT to act from them or take them as truth, especially when it comes to matters of theology. And this story is exactly what is stated in the quote. A mystical experience. And I’ll have NONE of that.
The more I read of Tolstoy, the less I am liking what I read.
★★☆☆
From Wikipedia.org
The story begins with the childhood and exceptional and accomplished youth of Prince Stepan Kasatsky. The young man is destined for great things. He discovers on the eve of his wedding that his fiancée Countess Mary Korotkova has had an affair with his beloved Tsar Nicholas I. The blow to his pride is massive, and he retreats to the arms of Russian Orthodoxy and becomes a monk. Many years of humility and doubt follow. He is ordered to become a hermit. Despite his being removed from the world, he is still remembered for having so remarkably transformed his life. One winter night, a group of merry-makers decide to visit him, and one of them, a divorced woman named Makovkina, spends the night in his cell, with the intention to seduce him. Father Sergius discovers he is still weak and in order to protect himself, cuts off his own finger. Makovkina is stunned by this act, and leaves the next morning, having vowed to change her life. A year later she has joined a convent. Father Sergius' reputation for holiness grows. He becomes known as a healer, and pilgrims come from far and wide. Yet Father Sergius is profoundly aware of his inability to attain a true faith. He is still tortured by boredom, pride, and lust. He fails a new test, when the young daughter of a merchant successfully beds him. The morning after, he leaves the monastery and seeks out Pashenka (Praskovya Mikhaylovna), whom he, with a group of other boys, had tormented many years ago. He finds her, now in all the conventional senses a failure in life, yet imbued with a sense of service towards her family. His path is now clearer. He begins to wander, until eight months later he is arrested in the company of a blind beggar who makes him feel closer to God. He is sent to Siberia, where he now works as the hired man of a well-to-do peasant, teaching the gentleman's young children and working in the gardens.
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