Socialism: Utopian and Scientific'', Engels drew a certain analogy between the sort of utopian communalism of some of the early Christian communities and the modern-day communist movement, the scientific communist movement representing the proletariat in this era and its world historic transformation of society. Engels noted both certain similarities and certain contrasts.
Christian communism
Christian communism is a theological view that the teachings of Jesus Christ compel Christians to support religious communism. Although there is no universal agreement on the exact dates when communistic ideas and practices in Christianity be ...
can be seen as a radical form of
Christian socialism. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
compel Christians to support
communism as the ideal social system. Although there is no universal agreement on the exact date when Christian communism was founded, many Christian communists assert that evidence from the
Bible suggests that the first Christians, including the
Apostles, created their own small communist society in the years following Jesus' death and resurrection. Advocates of Christian communism argue that it was taught by Jesus and practiced by the Apostles themselves.
Contemporary communism, including contemporary Christian communism, owes much to
Marxist thought—particularly Marxian economics. While not all communists are in full agreement with Marxism, communists share the Marxist critique of capitalism. Marxism includes a complex array of views that cover several different fields of human knowledge and one may easily distinguish between
Marxist philosophy
Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fr ...
,
Marxist sociology
Marxist sociology refers to the application of Marxist perspective within the study of sociology.Johnson, Allan G. 2000. "Marxist sociology." Pp. 183–84 in '. Wiley-Blackwell. . Marxism itself can be recognized as both a political philosoph ...
and
Marxist economics
Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian e ...
. Marxist sociology and Marxist economics have no connection to religious issues and make no assertions about such things. On the other hand, Marxist philosophy is famously atheistic, although some Marxist scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, have insisted that Marxist philosophy and the philosophy of Marx and Engels are significantly different from one another and that this difference needs recognition. In particular, Jose Porfirio Miranda found Marx and Engels to be consistently opposed to deterministic materialism and broadly sympathetic towards Christianity and towards the text of the Bible, although disbelieving in a supernatural deity.
In the 20th century, many analysts of Marx's works began to believe that Marx did not condemn religion in its entirety, but rather the Prussian Protestantism he encountered in Germany specifically:
An attempt to reconciliate religion with communism has been made by the followers of
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
. The Eurocommunists of Italy, France and Spain considered it essential to reach out to the Catholic population and secure their help in construction of socialism. This entailed abandoning state atheism in favor of secularism and allowing a greater tolerance of Catholicism, as well as toning down the critique of religion in favor of praising specific aspects of religion, such as the solidarity and camaraderie of Catholics, especially in the context of
anomie
In sociology, anomie () is a social condition defined by an uprooting or breakdown of any moral values, standards or guidance for individuals to follow. Anomie is believed to possibly evolve from conflict of belief systems and causes breakdown ...
.
This shift was particularly noticeable in the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
, which included several left-leaning Catholics as "independents" on its electoral lists. Many Italian communists such as
Lucio Lombardo-Radice
Lucio Lombardo-Radice (Catania, 10 July 1916; Brussels, 21 November 1982) was an Italian mathematician. A student of Gaetano Scorza, Lombardo-Radice contributed to finite geometry and geometric combinatorics together with Guido Zappa and Beniam ...
and
Cesare Luporini
Cesare Luporini (20 August 1909 – 9 April 1993) was an Italian philosopher, historian of philosophy and politician.
Biography
Luporini was born in Ferrara, but lived in Florence since childhood. Luporini graduated from the University of Floren ...
started advocating for greater cooperation with Catholics, which led
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician, considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which he led as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period in Ital ...
to highlight that the PCI "does not espouse atheism" at the 15th Congress of the party in 1979.
Liberation theology
In the 1950s and the 1960s, liberation theology was the political praxis of Latin American theologians, such as
Gustavo Gutiérrez
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino (born 8 June 1928) is a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest, regarded as one of the founders of Latin American liberation theology. He currently holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professo ...
of Peru,
Leonardo Boff of Brazil,
Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay and
Jon Sobrino
Jon Sobrino (born 1938) is a Jesuit Catholic priest and theologian, known mostly for his contributions to Latin American liberation theology. He received worldwide attention in 2007 when the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ...
of Spain, who made popular the phrase the "
Preferential option for the poor
The option for the poor, or the preferential option for the poor, is one of the newer principles of the Catholic social teaching, as articulated in the latter half of the 20th century; it is also a theological emphasis in Methodism. The concept ...
". While liberation theology was most influential in Latin America, it has also been developed in other parts of the world such as
black theology
Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It context ...
in the United States and South Africa,
Palestinian liberation theology
Christian political theology in the Middle East is a religious response by Christian leaders and scholars to political problems. Political theologians try to balance the demands of a tumultuous region with the delicate but long history of Christ ...
,
Dalit theology
Dalit theology is a branch of Christian theology that emerged among the Dalit caste in the Indian subcontinent in the 1980s. It shares a number of themes with Latin American liberation theology, which arose two decades earlier, including a se ...
in India and
Minjung theology
Minjung theology () emerged in the 1970s from the experience of South Korean Christians in the struggle for social justice. It is a people's theology, and, according to its authors, "a development of the political hermeneutics of the Gospel in ter ...
in South Korea. Consisting of a synthesis of
Christian theology and Marxist socioeconomic analyses, liberation theology stresses social concern for the poor and advocates for liberation for oppressed peoples. In addition to being a theological matter, liberation theology was often tied to concrete political practice.
Camilo Torres Restrepo
Camilo Torres Restrepo (3 February 1929 – 15 February 1966) was a Colombian Marxist–Leninist, Roman Catholic priest, a proponent of liberation theology, and a member of the National Liberation Army (Colombia), National Liberation Army (ELN), a ...
was one of the key thinkers of liberation theology. After his death, Torres became an icon in Colombia and in the rest of Latin America, as well as among many Catholics worldwide.
Torres argued that Christians had fought socioeconomic inequalities in the past, and while the
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
was not intended to change society, it influenced important changes like the abolition of slavery, the democratic valorization of the human being and
Marxist humanism
Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...
. Because of that, Torres considered Marxist humanism a product of the
Christian humanist movement. Torres expressed his disappointment with the Church for its exclusively spiritual approach to social problems, arguing that a spiritual approach shouldn't exclude a socioeconomic one. He saw an alliance between Marxists and Catholics as necessary, arguing that they are the only movements that could bring about political change, and that both are devoted to fighting social inequality.
He believed in the necessity of a revolution, seeing the poverty in Colombia as proof that the hitherto peaceful ways of the Catholic Church to bring about change have failed.
Communism and Islam
From the 1940s through the 1960s, communists, socialists and
Islamists
Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...
sometimes joined forces in opposing
colonialism and seeking
national independence. The communist
Tudeh Party of Iran
The Tudeh Party of Iran ( fa-at, حزب تودۀ ایران, Ḥezb-e Tūde-ye Īrān, lit=Party of the Masses of Iran) is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in i ...
was allied with the Islamists in their ultimately successful rebellion against the
Shah Pahlavi
,
, spouse = Maryam Savadkoohi Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlu (queen consort)Turan AmirsoleimaniEsmat Dowlatshahi
, issue = Princess Hamdamsaltaneh Princess ShamsMohammad Reza Shah Princess Ashraf Prince Ali Reza Prince Gholam Reza Prin ...
in 1979, although after the
Shah was overthrown the Islamists turned on their one-time allies. The
People's Mujahedin of Iran
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) ( fa, سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران, sâzmân-e mojâhedīn-e khalq-e īrân), is an Iranian pol ...
, an exiled political party which opposes the Islamic Republic, once advocated communist ideals, but has since abandoned them.
Communist philosopher
Mir-Said (Mirza) Sultan-Galiev,
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
's protégé at the
People's Commissariat for Nationalities
The People's Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR (, ''Narodny komissariat po delam natsional'nostey RSFSR''), abbreviated NKNats () or Narkomnats (), an organisation functioning from 1917 to 1924 in the early Soviet period of Russian and S ...
(Narkomnats), wrote in ''The Life of Nationalities'', the Narkomnats' journal.
Communism and Judaism
During the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
,
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
were seen as Communist sympathizers and thousands were murdered in pogroms by the
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв� ...
. During the
Red Scare
A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism or other leftist ideologies by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which ar ...
in the United States in the 1950s, a representative of the
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish or ...
assured the powerful
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disl ...
that "
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
and Communism are utterly incompatible". On the other hand, some
Orthodox Jews
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses ...
, including a number of prominent religious figures, actively supported either
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
or
Marxist versions of communism. Examples include Rabbi
Yehuda Ashlag
Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (1885–1954) or Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag ( he, רַבִּי יְהוּדָה לֵיבּ הַלֵּוִי אַשְׁלַג), also known as the Baal Ha-Sulam (Hebrew: , "Author of The Ladder") in reference to his magnum o ...
, an outspoken
libertarian communist
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains resp ...
, Russian revolutionary and
territorialist leader
Isaac Steinberg and Rabbi Abraham Bik, an American Communist activist.
Communism and the Baháʼí Faith
Analysis reveals that the
Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...
as both a doctrinal manifest and as a present-day emerging organised community is highly cooperative in nature with elements that correspond to various threads of Marxist thought, anarchist thought and more recent liberational thought innovations. Such elements include, for example, no clergy and themes that relate to
mutualism,
libertarian socialism and
democratic confederalism
Democratic confederalism ( ku, Konfederalîzma demokratîk), also known as Kurdish communalism or Apoism, is a political concept theorized by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan about a system of democratic self-organization ...
. There are many similarities and differences between the schools of thought, but one of the most common things they share are the time frame within which both ideologies were founded as well as some social and economic perspective. A book by the Association for Baháʼí Studies was written as a dialogue between the two schools of thought.
Communism and Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
has been said to be compatible with communism given that both can be interpreted as atheistic and arguably share some similarities regarding their views of the world of nature and the relationship between matter and mind.
Regardless, Buddhists have still been persecuted in some
Communist state
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comin ...
s, notably China, Mongolia and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.
Many supporters of the
Viet Cong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
were Buddhists, strongly believing in the unification of Vietnam, with many opposing
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
due to former President
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of ...
's persecution of Buddhism during the early 1960s. The current Dalai Lama
Tenzin Gyatso
The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
speaks positively of Marxism despite the heavy persecution of the Tibetan people by the post-
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC ...
and post-Cultural Revolution Chinese government. The Dalai Lama further stated that "
all the modern economic theories, the economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability.
..The failure of the regime in the former Soviet Union was, for me, not the failure of Marxism but the failure of totalitarianism. For this reason I still think of myself as half-Marxist, half-Buddhist".
In India, B. R. Ambedkar wrote in his essay ''Buddha or Karl Marx'' that "
e Russians are proud of their Communism. But they forget that the wonder of all wonders is that the Buddha established Communism so far as the Sangh was concerned without dictatorship. It may be that it was a communism on a very small scale but it was communism without dictatorship a miracle which Lenin failed to do."
Religious criticism of communism
Because of the perceived atheistic nature of communism, some have accused communism of persecuting religion. Another criticism suggests that communism – despite its own claims for a scientific basis in
dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism is a philosophy of science, history, and nature developed in Europe and based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxist dialectics, as a materialist philosophy, emphasizes the importance of real-world co ...
, and disregarding Marxism's open and evolving canon of scriptures from Marx to Mao and beyond – is in itself a religion – or at least a "
caricature
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...
of religion".
"Godless communism"
Throughout the
Second Red Scare
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origin ...
of the late 1940s and 1950s, the fear of the "Godless communist" rooted itself as an
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
and a warning to the United States in a changing global environment. As the perceived threat of the "Godless communist" and of materialism to the
American way of life grew, "the choice between Americanism and Communism was vital, without room for compromise".
[
Aiello, Thomas]
"Constructing 'Godless Communism': Religion, Politics, and Popular Culture, 1954–1960."
''Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900–present)'' 4.1 (2005).
See also
*
Anarchism and religion
*
Antireligion
Antireligion is opposition to religion. It involves opposition to organized religion, religious practices or religious institutions. The term ''antireligion'' has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship ...
*
Christian atheism
Christian atheism is a form of Christianity that rejects the theistic claims of Christianity, but draws its beliefs and practices from Jesus' life and teachings as recorded in the New Testament Gospels and other sources.
Christian atheism t ...
*
Jewish atheism
Jewish atheism refers to the atheism of people who are ethnically and (at least to some extent) culturally Jewish. Contrary to popular belief, the term "Jewish atheism" is not a contradiction because Jewish identity encompasses not only religio ...
*
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian theological approach emphasizing the liberation of the oppressed. In certain contexts, it engages socio-economic analyses, with "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples". I ...
*
Marxist–Leninist atheism
Marxist–Leninist atheism, also known as Marxist–Leninist scientific atheism, is the antireligious element of the Soviet Bolshevism-style variant of Marxism–Leninism, the official communist state ideology of the Soviet Union. Based upon a d ...
*
Red Terror
The Red Terror (russian: Красный террор, krasnyj terror) in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It started in lat ...
*
Religious communism
Religious communism is a form of communism that incorporates religious principles. Scholars have used the term to describe a variety of social or religious movements throughout history that have favored the common ownership of property.
Overview ...
*
Religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or their lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within societies to alienate o ...
*
State Secretary for Church Affairs
The State Secretary for Church Affairs (German: ''Staatssekretär für Kirchenfragen'') was the head of the Secretariat for Church Affairs in the former German Democratic Republic. The office was responsible for the relationship of the government t ...
*
Jewish Communist Party
References
Further reading
*
* Smolkin, Victoria/ ''A Sacred Space is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism'' (Princeton UP, 2018
online reviews
External links
''On Religion'' a collection of writings by Marx and Engels
''On Religion'' a collection of writings by Lenin
''History Is on Our Side''by
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, ini ...
''Marxism and Christianity: A Symposium''''The Urgency of Marxist-Christian Dialogue''by
Herbert Aptheker
Herbert Aptheker (July 31, 1915 – March 17, 2003) was an American Marxist historian and political activist. He wrote more than 50 books, mostly in the fields of African-American history and general U.S. history, most notably, ''American Negro ...
''Dialogue of Christianity and Marxism''''What Kind of Revolution? A Christian-Communist Dialogue''
* For a dramatic criticism see the
radio drama
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
br>
"Citizen Whitney" a presentation from ''
Destination Freedom
''Destination Freedom'' was a weekly radio program produced by WMAQ in Chicago from 1948 to 1950 that presented biographical histories of prominent African-Americans such as George Washington Carver, Satchel Paige, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tu ...
''
{{Authority control
Religion
Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, tran ...
Religion and politics