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Tolstoy's Postsecular International Thought 23 (refs in Chicago, for Palgrave) - for repository.pdf (230.81 kB)

The Golden Rule on the green stick: Leo Tolstoy's 'postsecular' international thought

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posted on 2014-08-28, 13:17 authored by Alexandre ChristoyannopoulosAlexandre Christoyannopoulos
Tolstoy argued that the core moral teaching of all religious and secular traditions is similar; that this rational core preaches love and a variant of the Golden Rule; that international peace can only be achieved by refusing to concede to the adoption of violent means to resist injustice; and that therefore we all need to strive, by personal example, towards a nonviolent, stateless but peaceful and just utopia. Tolstoy’s thought thus provides a potential bridge between secular and religious ideologies (by adopting a language that speaks to and is rooted in both); recalls the simple yet shared moral teaching which could revolutionize the current foundation of the international order; and articulates a critique of political institutions that resonates with and complements recent scholarship.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Politics and International Studies

Published in

Towards a Postsecular International Politics: New Forms of Community, Identity, and Power

Pages

81 - 102

Citation

CHRISTOYANNOPOULOS, A.J.M.E., 2014. The Golden Rule on the green stick: Leo Tolstoy's 'postsecular' international thought. IN: Mavelli, L. and Petito, F. (eds). Towards a Postsecular International Politics: New Forms of Community, Identity, and Power. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.81-102.

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2014

Notes

Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. The definitive, published, version of record is available here: http://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137341778

ISBN

9781137341778

Book series

Culture and Religion in International Relations

Language

  • en

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