The essence of the social conception of life consists in the transference of the meaning of our personal lives into the life of the aggregate of personalities, -the tribe, the family, the race, the state. This transference has taken place easily and naturally in its first forms, in the transference of meaning of life from the personality to the tribe, the family. But the transference to the race or nation is more difficult and demands a special education for it... -from The Kingdom of God Is Within You He is considered one of the greatest novelists in any language in all of human history, but Leo Tolstoy was also an influential social reformer and peace advocate. Subtitled "Christianity Not as a Mystical Teaching but as a New Concept of Life," this powerful exploration of the preachings of Jesus from a pacifistic perspective. First published in 1893, it introduced such important 20th-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King to the concept of nonviolent resistance. This edition is vital reading for anyone wishing to understand the history of protest around the world or gain a deeper appreciation of pacifistic Christianity. Russian writer COUNT LEV ("LEO") NIKOLAYEVICH TOLSTOY (1828-1910) is best known for his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Translation by Harvard professor of Slavic languages, Leo Weiner (1862-1939).