The Kingdom of God Is Within You

In this book-length treatise, Tolstoy sets out the case for Christian nonviolence that would occupy the last decades of his life. Reading the Sermon on the Mount as a literal command, he argues that the true meaning of Christ’s teaching is nonresistance to evil by force, and that governments, armies, and courts betray it. He answers his critics, traces the history of the pacifist idea, and attacks church and state for propping each other up. Banned in Russia and first printed abroad, the book later reached a young Gandhi, who counted it among the works that shaped his commitment to nonviolent resistance. A free PDF and EPUB edition are available here.