Was Tolstoy Sort of a Hypocrite?

Question by grizzly: Who agrees that Tolstoy was sort of a hypocrite?
He admires the poor and admires the idea of sexual abstinence, yet he was born privileged with wealth and certainly was not sexually abstinent. These are just a couple of examples amongst other things.
He wanted to disown his wealth and never did.
Also, because he criticized aristocratic life, yet he himself was an aristocrat.

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Answers and Views:

Answer by Peter Fernandez
Tolstoy was completely neurotic. But a great thinker.

Answer by Joop
Following the questioner’s logic, that would mean that if a person genuinely cares about a cause and gives to a charity out of their good heart, they are a hypocrite if they are wealthy.

Answer by Julia
That’s a non sequitur.
The OP is not talking that if you support something you have to give them all your money or you’re a hypocrite. They are saying that if you preach endlessly about poverty and chastity, but you don’t follow, you’re a hypocrite.
Tolstoy didn’t give money to charity, he talked and preached about sexual abstinence, about how all sex is bad, even inside the marriage. He said that if nobody had kids and humanity went extinct, that would only be a confirmation of the Apocalypse in the Bible. And then he had dozens of kids, even after it severely damaged his wife’s health and she became terrified of another pregnancy.
He talked for years about giving up his wealth but never got around to do it.
He’s a hypocrite.

Answer by ringm
Leo Tolstoy always had his own non-dogmatic interpretation of Christianity. He just accepted Christianity because of its moral teachings. Not because of everything else. That’s up to you if you will still call it “Christianity” or not.

Answer by Nunitak
Tolstoy was very, very kind and recommended lovingkindness. His life was an expansion of I Corinthians Ch. 13 (hope I have that right, the famous saying of Paul on love and charity).

I do not discard science like him. I believe there is such a thing as a true Christian. Just as certainly I believe Christ, in disguise as another man, and advocating the same truth as before, even tailoring it for the modern era, would be executed again, possibly even by so-called Christian churchmen or members.

Tolstoy did the best he could for his time and locale. It is much easier for someone living today to find greater truth than Tolstoy. But you see few who are actually greater than Tolstoy.

Could that be because they are not looking? Do they have more important things to do than to find God? Did not Christ say, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find….?

We will see Tolstoy in heaven, I am sure of it.

Read all the answers in the comments. What do you think?