Tolstoj och kristendomen, del 3

I fjärde kapitlet går Tolstoj in på varför han menar att de vetenskapsbundna har missförstått den kristna doktrinen. Han skapar termerna "social life-conception" och "divine life-conception". Han menar att man när man analyserar kristendomen analytiskt använder sig av "social life-conception" för att analysera resultatet av doktrinen i sig. Han menar också att man ser det Jesus förespråkade som kompromissbara storheter eftersom de i många fall är omöjliga att leva upp till. Detta menar han dock är ett liknande missförstånd som att tänka att definitionen att varje punkt är lika långt från en cirkels mitt är en kompromissbar  del av definitionen av en cirkel. Han menar att det Jesus predikade är centralt i kristendomen. Hela doktrinens kärna och essens. Han menar dock att det inte kan förstås som regler, något man även idag gör där man ofta tolkar kristendomen som en form av morallära. Han menar istället att Jesus predikade ideal mot vilka var man ska ständigt sträva i sitt liv. Idealen kan inte mätas utifrån utan endast inifrån utifrån varje persons egna samvete och utgångspunkt. Han menar att det inte ger någon mening att försöka förstå kristendom som en rad dogmer och utvecklar i följande stycken varför:

According to the Christian doctrine, life is a condition of progress towards the perfection of God; hence no one condition can be either higher or lower than another, because each is in itself a certain stage in human progress towards the unattainable perfection, and therefore of equal importance with all the others. Any spiritual quickening, according to this doctrine, is simply an accelerated movement towards perfection. Therefore the impulse of Zacchaeus the publican, of the adulteress and the thief on the cross, show forth a higher order of life than does the passive righteousness of the Pharisee. This doctrine therefore can never been forced by obligatory laws. The man who, from a lower plane, lives up to the doctrine he professes, ever advancing towards perfection, leads a higher life than one who may perhaps stand on a superior plan of morality, but who is making no progress towards perfection.
  Thus the stray lamb is dearer to the Father than those which are in the fold; the prodigal returned, the coin that was lost and is found again, more highly prized than those that never were lost.
  Since the fulfilment of this doctrine is an impulse from self towards God, it is evident that there can be no fixed laws for its movement. It may spring from any degree of perfection or of imperfection; the fulfilment of rules and fulfilment of the doctrine are by no means synonymous; there could be no rules or obligatory laws for its fulfliment.
  The difference between social laws and the doctrine of Christ is the natural result of the radical dissimilarity between the doctrine of Christ and those earlier doctrines which had their source in a social life-conception. The latter are for the most part positive, enjoining certain acts, by the performance of the which men are to be justified and made righteous, whereas the Christian precepts (the precept of love is not a commandment in the strict sense of the word, but the expression of the very essence of the doctrine), the five commandments of the Sermon on the Mount, are all negative, only meant to show men who have reached a certain degree of development what they must avoid. These commandments are, so to speak, mile stones on the infinite road to perfection, towards which humanity is struggling, they mark the degrees of perfection which it is possible for it to attain at a certain period of its development.
  In the Sermon of the Mount Christ expressed the eternal ideal to which mankind instinctively aspires, showing at the same time the point of perfection to which human nature in its present stage may attain.
  The ideal is to bear no malice, excite no ill will, and to love all men. The commandment which forbids us to offend our neighbour is one which a man who is striving to attain this ideal must not do less than obey. And this is the first commandment.