# The Process of Christianization and the Inevitability of Moral Progress explained — The Kingdom of God Is Within You > Chapter companion for The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy. ## What happens Tolstoy argues that the forward movement of humanity toward Christianity occurs not only through individual inner conversion but also through a social process where the worst elements of society, upon seizing power, are gradually softened by the experience of power's vanity. This unconscious Christianization, likened to boiling water or a sinking vessel, ensures that violence diminishes over time as even the most cruel rulers become less able to exercise violence, eventually making way for more Christian elements. The defenders of state violence are refuted: their fear of the bad ruling the good is already realized under state violence, and the true solution lies in the inevitable moral progress of all men, driven by both conscious adoption of Christian truth and the sobering effect of power itself. ## Themes in this chapter ### Inevitability of Moral Progress Tolstoy argues that humanity inevitably moves toward Christianity through both conscious adoption and unconscious processes, such as the softening of rulers in power, making moral progress unavoidable. ### Freedom from Human Power The chapter emphasizes that true liberation comes from the gradual dissolution of state violence as men become more Christian, ultimately freeing humanity from the need for coercive power. ### Critique of Church and State Tolstoy criticizes the defenders of the state who argue that violence is necessary to prevent the bad from ruling the good, pointing out that state violence itself is the very evil it claims to prevent. ## Character check-ins ### Leo Tolstoy Author of the chapter, presenting his argument on the process of Christianization and the inevitable decline of state violence. ### Jesus Christ Quoted as predicting the vanity of power and wealth: 'Woe unto you that are rich, that are full now, and when all are glorified.' ### Constantine the Great Referenced indirectly as an example of a ruler who, like Charles V and Alexander I, recognized the vanity of power and renounced it. ### Napoleon Mentioned as an example of a ruler who, through the process of power, may have experienced the sobering effect of power's vanity. ## Key lines > The forward movement of humanity takes place, not in this way, that the best elements of society, seizing the power and using violence against those men who are in their power, make them better, as the conservatives and revolutionists think, but, in the first and chief place, in that all men in general unswervingly and without cessation more and more consciously acquire the Christian life-conception, and in the second place, in that, even independently of the conscious spiritual activity of men, men unconsciously, in consequence of the very process of seizure of power by one set of men and transference to another set, and involuntarily are brought to a more Christian relation to life. Humanity progresses not because the best people seize power and force others to improve, but because everyone gradually adopts a Christian worldview, and even without conscious effort, the constant shifting of power among people naturally leads them to become more Christian in their relationships. _Tolstoy contrasts the common view of progress through elite-led violence with his own view of gradual, universal Christianization._ > Violence selects and attracts the worst elements of society, works them over, and, improving and softening them, returns them to society. State violence draws in the most corrupt individuals, but the experience of power gradually refines them, making them less cruel and more Christian before they rejoin the general population. _Tolstoy presents a paradoxical mechanism where violence itself, through the sobering effect of power, contributes to moral improvement._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kingdom_of_god_is_within_you_se/chapters/x - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kingdom_of_god_is_within_you_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kingdom_of_god_is_within_you_se/chapters