The Religious Nature of Russian Marxism

Abstract

Russian Marxism has been called a religion, or compatible with religion, by many laymen as well as theologians. This paper attempts to find acceptable definitions of religion and of Russian Marxism, and goes on to show that, in terms of these, Russian Marxism, on the one hand can be called a religion and, on the other, is totally opposed to religion in all acceptable forms. It finds further that Russian Marxism is, in fact, an inversion of Christianity and, more specifically, of Roman Catholicism. It concludes that because of the diametrically opposed views of Christianity and Russian Marxism, a Christian-Russian Marxist dialogue is impossible, if each side is to retain its essential nature.