Description
Neither Christianity nor Marxism are doing well in contemporary Britain. Yet whatever problems might afflict each individually, many consider them to be incompatible.
This book argues that this objection fails and that we can learn a lot by working through the reasons why this is the case. Marx was indeed an atheist, but the target of his atheism was a form of belief in God which Christians ought to reject as idolatrous.
Similarly, Marx’s materialism is not best understood as a claim that no non-material entities exist, but rather as a view about the nature of human societies and the manner in which they change. This materialism emphasises the situatedness of all human thought and culture, and as such has much to teach Christianity, without undermining it.
Marx stresses the reality of social conflict, and argues that the fundamental conflict within capitalist society needs to be engaged in and won by the working class in order for a society more conducive to human flourishing to be born. Drawing on Herbert McCabe’s work, Simon Hewitt argues that we need to live with the conflict and applies this conclusion to questions about unity and communion within the Church.
Finally, Marx’s attack on moralism is often taken to be incompatible with religion of any sort. However, Christians don't need to embrace the kind of austere and command-based morality which is Marx’s target. Rather, within the Christian tradition there are far more interesting and life-affirming ways of thinking about ethics—centred on the idea of virtue—and these can provide the basis for common ground between Christians and Marxists.