# Faith and Doubt in A Confession

> Theme guide for A Confession by Leo Tolstoy.

Tolstoy explores his loss of childhood religious faith, his intellectual rejection of Orthodox Christianity, and his eventual struggle to reconcile reason with the irrational but life-sustaining faith of the common people.

## Where it surfaces

- [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/i): The narrator's loss of childhood faith and the gradual erosion of religious belief under the influence of reason and experience.
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/viii): The narrator struggles with faith as irrational yet essential, doubting his own reason and the validity of the common people's beliefs.
- [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/ix): The narrator acknowledges faith as the only source of life's meaning, despite its irrationality.
- [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/x): The narrator grapples with doubt regarding the faith of the educated, while finding genuine faith among the poor and simple.
- [XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xii): The chapter vividly portrays the oscillation between doubt (despair, thoughts of suicide) and faith (joy, renewed life) as the narrator seeks God.
- [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xiii): The narrator grapples with accepting Church rituals and doctrines while doubting their validity, ultimately choosing to humble his reason and submit to tradition.
- [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xiv): The narrator experiences intense doubt during the Eucharist and struggles to maintain faith despite theological contradictions.
- [Chapter XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xv): Tolstoy's intense struggle between his desire to believe and his intellectual rejection of church doctrines; his envy of peasants' simple faith.
- [XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/chapters/xvi): The narrator moves from doubt to a conviction that truth exists in religion, yet acknowledges falsehood, prompting a critical examination.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/themes/faith_and_doubt
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_confession_se/themes