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The similarities between early Christianity and Marxism are incredible. Both hold the hope of improving the plight of humankind. Where Christianity sees a better future in Heaven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Marxism sees a better future here on Earth through the worker's struggle for freedom from class exploitation.
Presented in chronological order the book begins with an essay by Friedrich Engels comparing the two ideologies. He examines the material and historical roots of Christianity and shows how Marxism has a similar origin and is actually the precursor to Marxism. Lenin then provides his own views on Engels’s hypothesis while explaining the perspective of the Russian communists’ stance towards religion as a whole in the early 1900s. Lastly, Dr. Thomas Riggins writes his contemporary breakdown of both Engels’s work and Lenin’s while contrasting the current developments of Marxism and Christianity up to our day.
This brief collection provides a historically progressing snapshot of how material reality moves from one century to the next within the context of these two polarizing social trends. Both Christianity and Marxism have taken huge leaps forward, and giant steps back but both, as with all things, keep progressing and evolving. This book brings us to where we are today in the religious and political landscape by providing a wonderful view of the past as well as posing interesting questions about the future of humanity and the roles that these two world-changing ideologies will play. It is sure to stir up debate and provide delicious food for thought. It is a must-read for Christians and Marxists alike.
About the Author
THOMAS RIGGINS was born in sunny West Palm Beach Florida in 1942. In high school, he read Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell and since was inspired to study philosophy. He was a devoted civil rights activist in his youth during the 1960s when he was chairman of the Young People’s Socialist League at Florida State University, and when
he worked for the Congress of Racial Equality. He has been a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America since the 1970s and was one of several hundred
CPUSA members in 1991 to sign “An Initiative to Unite and Renew the Party” after the party was weakened in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. He remains a party
member to this day. At Florida State University he received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology and archaeology as well as a master’s in philosophy. Later in the 1980s, he received another master’s in philosophy at the City University of New York and then completed his PhD, again in philosophy, with his dissertation on Christopher Caudwell. He
would go on later to teach at NYU and the New School of Social Research for over twenty years on the subjects of philosophy and ancient studies. Over the course of his extensive
career, he has written for multiple publications such as People’s World as well as Political Affairs where was an associate editor. He served on the board of the Bertrand Russel Society and was president of the Corliss Lamont chapter of the American Humanist Association in New York. He is now retired from teaching and writes articles and books on the topics of communism and current political affairs for multiple online publications, primarily the Midwestern Marx Institute for the Marxist Theory and Political Analysis where he is a counseling director. Some of his books include Reading the Classical Texts of Marxism, Eurocommunism, and The Outcome of Classical German Philosophy (see all his published works at midwesternmarx.com). He currently resides in New York.
Order paperback copy here: Early Christianity and Marxism