About resistance to evil by force. Ilyin I.A.

Can a truly religious person reject humility and fight evil and sword? Is the death penalty as an extreme way to confront evil and is its physical suppression by an act of violence?

The work of the philosopher Ivan Ilyin “On Resistance to Evil strength” was written in 1925 in exile as a response to the religious and ethical teachings of a lion Tolstoy. The Tolstoyites considered Christianity as the doctrine of forgiveness, non -resistance to evil by force and the rejection of hostility with any people.

The author denies the idea of ​​non -resistance to evil and believes that not every power is evil and not every use of power is villainy. To submit and substitute another cheek means to adapt and become like evil, to become part of it. Whereas to stop the atrocity by force, retreating from his own moral principles and beliefs, is a spiritual compromise of a person in the name of the fulfillment of God's will.