Marriage, Mission, Myth, and Meaning in The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy | Book Discussion!
Description
A man climbs a ladder to hang drapes and slips into a lifetime’s truth: he’s been decorating emptiness. We sat with Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich and asked hard questions about status, ritual, and the kind of love that only shows up when it costs.
Quick story snapshot (Tolstoy): Ivan Ilyich, a successful judge with a “proper” life, suffers a fatal illness after a trivial accident. As pain strips away his self-deception, society’s politeness rings hollow—only the servant Gerasim meets him with honest compassion. In his final hours Ivan sees that a life ordered around comfort and appearances cannot save; repentance and self-giving love can.
What we explore (through an Orthodox lens):
- Marriage as sanctification, not transaction—a place where pride dies and love learns to serve.
- Rituals with a why—why liturgy and household habits either form us or numb us.
- Seeing with others’ eyes—how wives, husbands, converts, and cradle faithful re-read the same text and grow empathy.
- The bruise as a parable of sin—ignored at first, spreading quietly, distorting how we see those closest to us.
- Gerasim’s ordinary holiness—humility, patience, and joy as the persuasive answer to “main-character energy.”
- Recovering a shared moral language—how myth and realism help us talk about death, judgment, and mercy in an age of “my truth.”
Takeaway: Don’t wait for a deathbed to choose communion over isolation. Read bravely, examine your ladders, and practice the love that moves first—especially when it costs.
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