Concept
The Gospel in Brief
Overview
The Gospel in Brief (Russian: Краткое Изложение Евангелия) is an 1892 synthesis of the four gospels of the New Testament into one narrative of the life of Jesus by Russian author Leo Tolstoy.
Included in a larger volume in 1892, the 1896 account published as The Gospel in Brief is notable in that it excludes many of the supernatural aspects of the original gospels, such as their claims of Jesus's divine origins and ability to perform miracles. Instead, the work focuses on Jesus's teachings to his followers, presumably those which Tolstoy found most compelling. The Gospel in Brief is thought by some to be deeply reflective of Tolstoy's own interpretation of Christianity.
The Gospel in Brief is said to be the result of Tolstoy's close study of the original Koine Greek New Testament.
The account presented in Tolstoy's gospel is also notable in its sharp contrast with the contemporaneous views of the Russian Orthodox Church. Tolstoy was a fierce critic of the Russian Orthodox Church, which went so far as to excommunicate him for his writings on Christianity in 1901.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
In other places and posterior times alone, could this supplemental vision, therefore, have been put into circulation: accordingly, not till a great many years after, was mention made of it by the author of the Acts:--mention made by him, either in his own person, or as having been related, or alluded to, by Paul himself. Even the author of the Acts,--though in this same chapter he has been relating the story of…
Jeremy Bentham, Not Paul, but Jesus
Close in meaning to The Gospel in Brief; the term itself is not named.
The daughters of Anius had changed water into wine and oil before there was any question of the marriage-feast of Cana. Athalide, Hippolytus, Alcestis, Pelops, and Heres had returned to life long before men spoke of the resurrection of Jesus; and Romulus was born of a vestal virgin more than seven hundred years before Jesus began to be regarded as virgin-born. Compare, and judge for yourselves.
Voltaire, Toleration and other essays
Close in meaning to The Gospel in Brief; the term itself is not named.
It is not then astonishing that the Jews and the first Christians, who, we find in the Acts of the Apostles, confined themselves in their meetings to the reading of the Bible, were, as will be seen in the article "Heresy," divided into different sects. For this reading was afterwards substituted that of various apocryphal works, or at least of extracts from them. The author of the "Synopsis of Scripture," which we…
Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
Close in meaning to The Gospel in Brief; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed The Gospel in Brief
Related ideas
- Jesus
- Gospel
- Heaven
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Leo Tolstoy
- New Testament
- Russia
- Thomas Jefferson
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
- Koine Greek
- Miracle
- Christianity
- Supernatural
- Charles Dickens
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.