Are We Slaves to Fate, Random Chaos, Divine Providence?

The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy struggled with these thoughts

Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel, “‘War and Peace,” written in 1879 and set in 1805-1813, shows how families are helplessly swept up in the forces of history, in this case Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Tolstoy challenged the Great Man Theory of History. From his perspective in Russia at that time, the individual actions of men rarely resulted in great histo…