Roland Boer is an Australian

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and scholar of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

. He was awarded the

Deutscher Memorial Prize The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize is an annual prize given in honour of historian Isaac Deutscher and his wife Tamara Deutscher for a new book published in English "which exemplifies the best and most innovative new writing in or about ...

in 2014.

Career

Boer obtained a bachelors degree in

divinity Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine

from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. He was a professor at

University of Newcastle (Australia) The University of Newcastle (UON), informally known as Newcastle University, is a public university in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1965, it has a primary campus in the Newcastle suburb of Callaghan. The university als ...

. In 2018 he was described by

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

as one of the world's top experts on Marxism. He teaches at the

Dalian University of Technology Dalian University of Technology (DUT) (), colloquially known in Chinese as Dagong (), is a public research university located in Dalian, Liaoning, China, with an additional campus in Panjin, Liaoning. Established in April 1949, it is the ...

's School of Marxism.

Personal life

He runs the blog ''Stalin's Moustache''.

Notable works

Political Myth: On the Use and Abuse of Biblical Themes

''Political Myth: On the Use and Abuse of Biblical Themes'' was released in 2009. It examines the political narratives that emerge out of the Hebrew Bible on the political right and provides a framework to crique those narratives from the political left.

The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel

''The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel'' examines the intersection of economics and religion in ancient Israel through the lens of Marxist critical theory.

The Criticism of Heaven and Earth

''The Criticism of Heaven and Earth'' is a series of books which explores the intersection of Marxism and religion. The fifth book in the series, ''In the Vale of Tears: On Marxism and Theology V'', was released in 2012. In 2014 it was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics : a guide for foreigners

In ''Socialism with Chinese characteristics : a guide for foreigners'' Boer describes Gordan H. Chang's ''The Coming Collapse of China'' (2001) as an example of the "China

doomer Doomer and, by extension, doomerism are terms which arose primarily on the Internet to describe people who are extremely pessimistic or fatalist about global problems such as overpopulation, peak oil, climate change, and pollution. Some doomers ...

" approach to

historical nihilism Historical nihilism ( zh, s=历史虚无主义, p=Lìshǐ xūwú zhǔyì) is a term used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and some scholars in China to describe research, discussions, or viewpoints that contradict its official version of histor ...

. Other examples cited by Boer include anti-communist tropes and

atrocity propaganda Atrocity propaganda is the spreading of information about the crimes committed by an enemy, which can be factual, but often includes or features deliberate fabrications or exaggerations. This can involve photographs, videos, illustrations, intervie ...

, as well as "Betrayal" narratives in which

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...

is cast as a "traitor" who supposedly undid the achievements of China's revolution and brought capitalism to China may also be characterized as historical nihilism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boer, Roland Australian academics Australian Marxists Dalian University of Technology faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Living people