Reading the Sacred Text in the Late Works of L. N. Tolstoy

The reading of the sacred text is considered in the article as a formalized action (reading the sexton in the prison church in the novel “Resurrection”), as an event that radically changes the lives of the characters (Chuev and Pelageyushkin in the story “The Fake Coupon”), as a process of gradual approach of the characters to higher truths (Nekhludoff in the final part of the novel “Resurrection, Svetlogub and the old man-bespopovets in the story “Divine and Human”). The traditional form of reading, characterized by the comprehension of the sacred word by the reader and listener, is presented in the story “Where Love Is, God Os” and in the story “The Fake Coupon”. In the first work, this type of reading is given by the pretext — the story of the pastor, Protestant Evangelist R. Silence, “Father Martin.” In the light of the hagiographic tradition, Tolstoy highlights the acceptance of evangelical truths and the spiritual upheaval in Pelageyushkin, the hero of the story “The Fake Coupon”. In connection with the traditional type of reading, Tolstoy emphasized the reader (listener) from the common people. The “personal” type of reading is correlated with intermediary characters (Kieseweter, the English missionary in The Resurrection, the old man in the Resurrection and in the Divine and Human), who refer listeners to the sacred text and interpret it in their own way. Tolstoy shows that such a preachy approach to the sacred text leads to further separation of people. Understanding the sacred text, which overcomes the temptation of a purely personal interpretation in a person, transforms not only the hero-reader himself, but also determines the possibility of a beneficial effect of the words of Scripture on others. Another variant of the “personal” type of reading is depicted in the final scene of the novel “Resurrection” and in the story “Divine and Human”: rationally thinking characters (Nekhludoff, Svetlogub), who had no trust in the sacred text, independently come to understand and experience it. In the process of reading, the nature of their interpretation of the sacred text is transformed (skepticism is replaced by agreement), and the difference between traditional and “personal” reading is gradually minimized.