SOURCE: "Count Leo Tolstoy," in Autobiographies of Ten Religious Leaders: Alternatives in Christian Experience, Trinity University Press, 1968, pp. 201-29.

In the following essay, Tsanoff considers Tolstoy as a significant Christian leader in twentieth-century thought.

The conventional, the ordinary, produces slight impression on us, nor do we feel drawn towards the entirely respectable; but the unusual personality is likely to engage our attention, especially if it is in some ways negative. Men have repeatedly been stirred by those who have defied "the establishment." The sophisticated days of Athenian culture and Corinthian luxury were just right for Diogenes of Sinope. He spat at the Hellenic amenities as artificial barriers to unbound self-expression. Spurning all social honor and conformity as empty, he found his satisfaction in suiting his own passing mood, fareing on garlic and lodging in his proverbial tub. Yet he commanded the respect of those whose proprieties he scorned...