I actually have a different printing of this book, but it has seriously affected my world view, as it did for Mahatma Gandhi.
A small sampling of Tolstoy's insights to Christianity from this work, and how it is extremely relevant to modern society and current politics is the subject of the second half of one of my recent blog posts here:[...] As I mention in the post, the historical interpretations of scripture as presented by Tolstoy seem to match expert knowledge of the period, as the PhD Archeologist I met in Rome explained to me.
This book will change how you view and understand Christianity. Or, it did for me at least. But then again I was raised as a Right Winged, Home Schooled, Christian American Republican. Prepare to have much of that like completely shattered beyond hope of repair as Tolstoy analyzes the original meaning and understanding of many of Christs teachings, without the misrepresentations of the church. As a bonus: Gain valuable counter points for the so called biblical literalists you may run into from time to time. (Even more of which can be found elsewhere on my blog.)
Anyway: Tolstoy gets 5 stars from me! And presumably Gandhi also, given he modeled his work in large part on Tolstoy's explanation of Christs teachings from this volume. So if you don't believe me, take Gandhi's word for it!