Bible Stories

Marxism was born at the time when Protestant theologians were busy in their search for the historical Jesus — a quest very much predetermined by the rationalistic methods and philosophical views of the time. For Karl Marx, ‘criticism of religion has been essentially completed’, and so he shows no interest in the founder of the Christian faith.

Generally speaking, Marxists hate all gods, including the Christian God-man Jesus Christ. They may be occasionally intrigued by the man Jesus, but only after clearly dissociating him from the New Testament and from the subsequent Christian interpretation of him as Son of God and Saviour of mankind.

Friedrich Engels had a pietistic upbringing, but became an atheist. The famous ‘Jesus-critic’ of his day, D. F. Strauss, influenced him in that direction. Later Engels taught that Christianity began in the second century in Egypt and that the idea of Christ the Saviour was a product of wishful thinking by the lower classes of people who yearned for liberation.

The first systematic study of early Christianity from a Marxist point of view was written by Karl Kautsky (1854-1939) under the title, Foundations of Christianity. For Kautsky, Jesus was a ‘messianic-communist-oriented revolutionary’, a leader of the oppressed and exploited masses. Because he presented a threat to the Roman establishment, they removed him by crucifixion. Faith in the redeeming work of Christ developed gradually out of the frustration of the working masses who were unable to change their conditions.

For Lenin, Jesus never existed and was a mythical invention. The official anti-Christian propaganda in the Soviet Union found Kautsky’s portrayal of Jesus as a revolutionary Messiah too positive. Soviet Marxists, in their attack on Christianity, systematically ‘eliminated’ Jesus from history. This complete abolition of Jesus is insisted on in all Soviet studies dealing with the subject. It is repeated by other dogmatic Marxists in Eastern Europe.

Jesus and the Neo-Marxists

Since the late 1960s, there has been an increased interest in Jesus of Nazareth among a number of open and critical Marxists (often referred to as Neo-Marxists). Among the better known are: Ernst Bloch, Roger Garaudy, Milan Machovec, Leszek Kolakowski,

Vizteslav Gardaysky, Lucio Lombardo-Radice and Konrad Farner. They have in common a criticism of Marxism as a closed dogmatic and infallible system and an openness to reinterpret and reapply it.

For Kolakowski, for example, the attempts to erase Jesus from European history and culture are fruitless and ridiculous. Jesus is ‘an example of the most sacred human values’ and ‘an example of the only radical authenticity by which each human individual is able to realize truly his own life values.’ Similarly for the French Marxist, Roger Garaudy, Jesus is ‘the highest model of freedom and love, an openness for the infinite ..

Neo-Marxists are attracted to Jesus as a model for human life and action. He is an authentic man; a man for others; a totally committed man. They are impressed with Jesus‘ stand for truth and justice, and by his solidarity with the poor, the suffering, the dying. His love is not abstract or sentimental, but practical and concrete. For Neo-Marxists, Jesus is a ‘prophet and reformer’. They see him as one who opens up new possibilities and a new future for mankind.

They give us a dynamic picture of the man Jesus, but they point only to the secular fulfilment of humanity. NeoMarxist views of Jesus are still based on materialistic-atheistic presuppositions. They still reject the God-centred interpretation of Jesus which the New Testament teaches.

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