Ballou Edin

The doctrine of non-resistance to evil was revealed to Ball in all its harmony and fullness in 1838. He becomes an adherent of Christian non-resistance, but not blind and irrational in his behavior, but with the firm conviction that true Christian non-resistance is not passivity, not indifference to those who do evil, but abstinence from any use of harmful, unwholesome force, as well as from any action, words, feelings towards those who do evil, if all this can harm their body, mind or spirit. In the same year, 1838, Ballu was adopted and published "An example of practical Christianity."

In 1841, Balloo with thirty followers organized the Community at Hopedale, near Boston . “It was a strictly practical Christian movement,” wrote the Unitarian pastor and student of Ballou, J. L. Wilson (1858-1921), “inspired by the teachings of the New Testament . "They sought to put into practice such commandments of Christ, as - do not resist evil, love your enemies, etc." During the first fourteen years, the community flourished, the number of its members increased to three hundred people. All of them were housed in fifty houses on fifty acres of land, with a chapel, library, school, shops. According to community members, it was an amazingly beautiful village with nice, neat streets and houses. The capital of the community was ninety thousand dollars.

Ballu's wife, Lucy, helped compose and edit her husband's work, her son Edin Augustus worked in a printing house and published a newsletter, and her daughter Abby taught at a school in Hopedale.

For several years, Ballou traveled to New England, giving lectures on the theory of Christian non-resistance and the practical application of these ideas. In 1843, he became president of the New England Non-Resistance Society.

Ballu gave several lectures against slavery : in 1846 - in Pennsylvania , and in 1848 - in New York , for several years he collaborated with W. L. Harrison , founder of the American Society for the Struggle against Slavery.

By 1856, due to financial and moral difficulties, the community was dissolved. The property of the community was acquired by the richest members, and since then the community in Hopedale has become an ordinary village, and Ballu himself has become an ordinary priest.

But its founder withstood all the hardships and shocks, continuing for many years with few followers to put into practice those great ideas on which the community was founded. A number of books and pamphlets came from Ballou's pen. The list of published works has fifty titles, among them - “Christian Non-Resistance” (1846), “Practical Christian Socialism” (1854), etc.

In recent years, Ballou has focused on writing the final work of his life - Autobiography, in the introduction to which he writes: “I was not a person whose life is accompanied by success, but rather, in many ways, a failure. And not because my efforts, principles, ideals and plans were reprehensible and unworthy, but because they anticipated the conditions and means necessary to achieve them. My hopes were too persistent and optimistic, my goal was too high for immediate realization and my path was overshadowed by disappointment and sadness. "

Leo Tolstoy , who was in correspondence with Edin Ballu, called him one of the true apostles of modern times. The books and brochures of E. Ballu, stored in the Yasnaya Polyana library, allow us to get an idea of ​​the scale of his personality, the scope of his religious and social activities, and, of course, first of all, to comprehend Tolstoy’s interest in his spiritual path and the preaching of non-resistance . “In the works of these works, which are beautiful in terms of clarity and beauty, the question is considered from all possible sides,” Lev Nikolaevich wrote in his collection “Reading Circle”, introducing the reader to E. Ballu from the “Catechism of Non-Resistance”.

The diary entries of the American pacifist , included in the last chapters of his Autobiography, indicate his primary interest in the work of the Russian writer. The first mention of Tolstoy appeared in the Ballu diary on February 16, 1886. On the pages of the American magazine Arena for 1890, stored in the Yasnaya Polyana library, L. Wilson published almost completely the correspondence of Tolstoy and Ballu, thereby enabling the reader to compare how two followers of the doctrine of non-resistance to evil look at this doctrine. Despite some differences of opinion that were clarified as a result of correspondence, both had deep respect for each other, and only the death of Edin Ballu prevented the further development of their spiritual communication.

After the death of Ballu Tolstoy, not counting their differences of principle, rising above them and seeing only the main thing that united them in a single desire for the practical implementation of Christian teachings, persistently promoted the works of Ballu, tried to translate and publish one of his most important books - “Christian non-resistance. " The epistolary dialogue about the theory and practice of non-resistance, which took place between Tolstoy and Ballou, allows us to talk about a certain commonality, closeness of religious and ethical views, which predetermined Tolstoy's deepest interest and respect for Ball over the past two decades of his life.

• “... one person should not kill. If he killed, he is a criminal, he is a killer. Two, ten, one hundred people, if they do this, they are killers. But the state or people can kill as much as they want, and it will not be murder, but a good, good deed. Only to gather more people, and the slaughter of tens of thousands of people becomes an innocent thing. But how many people do you need for this? ”
• “... it is difficult to follow the doctrine of non-resistance, but is it easy to follow the doctrine of struggle and retaliation? ... read the description of one of the hundred thousand battles that people fought to please the law of struggle. In these wars, several billion people were killed, so in each of those battles more lives were lost, more suffering was endured than would have accumulated for centuries due to non-resistance to evil. ”

• Harrison, William Lloyd
• Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich
• sweatshirt
• non-violence
• pacifism
• Unitarian church

• Friends site of Edina Ballou - biography, bibliography, texts of the main works of Ballou ( eng. )
• Works by A. Ballu in the library of Y. G. Krotov

• Balu A. "The Doctrine of the Christian Non-Resistance to Evil by Violence." M., "Mediator", 1908.
• Balu A. “Catechism of Non-Resistance” and fragments of other works
• Ballu E. and Tolstoy L. N. “Correspondence” (1889-1890) // “Unknown Tolstoy in the archives of Russia and the USA”, M., JSC “TECHNA-2”, 1994

• Alekseeva G.V. “Leo Tolstoy and Edin Ballu on the theory and practice of non-resistance” // “Yasnaya Polyana Collection”, 1998. Tula, 1999.
• Ivanov V. M. “Christianity and Non-Violence” (inaccessible link) (inaccessible link from 11-05-2013 [2286 days]) // “Principles of Non-Violence”, M., “Progress”, 1991.

• Osipova E. F. “American Transcendentalists and L. N. Tolstoy” // Bulletin of the University of Leningrad - 1980. - No. 8.