Three German Marxists Look at Christianity: 1900-1930

Abstract

After meeting Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans Schonfeld in Sweden in 1942, Bishop George Bell of Chichester forecast that collapse of Hitler will leave a vacuum in Europe. Unless the problem of how that vacuum can be rightly filled squarely and immediately faced, the last state of Europe may be worse than the first.1 After the Nazi capitulation and the subsequent division of Germany, it seemed many Christians that Bell's gloomiest fears were justified; for the first time in history a large Protestant church (nominally comprising the majority of the population in East Ger many) was obliged live and witness entirely within the Marxist Leninist version of socialism. Yet a quarter of a century later, when Bishop Albrecht Schonherr of Berlin-Brandenburg came from that country lecture in Britain on the situation of his church, he began with the assumption that life in such a situation is something be taken seriously and welcomed as an opportunity be grasped, rather than just fatalistically accepted. In support of this assump tion he argued: first, that there are elements within the Marxist outlook that can be related the outlook of the Bible (even though Marxists often understand themselves be in irreconcilable con flict with Christianity); second, that within a Marxist state the church has a role of calling attention from time time develop ments that might pose a threat society, human welfare or justice; and third, that instead of merely coexisting, Marxists and Christians ought be ready to live in creative tension. Schonherr saw this creative tension as able correct erring Christians as well as erring Marxists.2