Parallels between Communism and Christianity are not new, and many early Marxist thinkers have made these connections throughout history. Unfortunately, many attempts to bridge these traditions end up being idealist, detached from historical materialism and inevitably centring on a few words attributed to Jesus of Nazareth or accounts of the early church. Most of these parallels – although well-meaning, end up being vague appeals to social justice or the practice of mutual aid – charity projects that have far more in common with the Salvation Army rather than the actuality of Marxism-Leninism. It is here where Roland Boer’s indispensable work, Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition must be taken into account, a well-researched text which argues that not only do Christianity and Marxism offer parallel criticisms of the world, but that both traditions offer a shared history of revolutionary struggle, each with proud examples of turning the world upside-down.
The book outlines a compelling history of what Boer names as “christian communism”. Drawing upon the analysis of Kautsky and Luxembourg, the author makes a crucial point: while what began with the early church – a collective of believers who “shared all things in common”, could be claimed by the communist tradition, it cannot be forgotten that this was a communism of consumption, not of production – a phenomenon which did not truly emerge until the USSR. This “communism of consumption”, which was modelled first by the Mosaic tradition, and later within the Jewish Essene communes, largely appealed to the poor, the slaves, and the unemployed, but also included wealthier members. Class and ethnic divisions were smoothed out to a degree through the sharing of possessions, of alms-giving and “mutual aid”, often against the background of a shared hatred of the rich. Central of course, was the eager expectation of a radically different social order where the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Boer sees the development of this community against the background of growing social unrest within Judea, confined to the political economy of subsistence-survival agricultural and Roman colonization. His main argument here is that the success of the early church was its resonance with the exploited classes of Judea, with its “communism of consumption” sustained through a militant attitude towards selling possessions to sustain the communities of faith. This red thread appears repeatedly within the tradition of heterodox Christianity, moving slowly towards a communism of production with the advent of Marxism-Leninism – which Boer sees as the fulfillment of the primitive communist aspirations of the early church. However, Boer also gives a word of caution here, noting the analysis of Luxembourg which identified Christian communism’s tendency towards mutual aid – the limits of a communism of consumption shown in its inevitable degeneration into alms-giving or charity. Further, as Luxembourg claimed, the greatest weakness of any communism of consumption (or anarchist commune) is how easily it can be accommodated within, and even generate new structures of exploitation. For anyone attempting to bridge communism and faith, these insights are crucial to understand.
As a Reformed theologian, Boer takes a positive view of the Protestant Reformation, and of Calvin and Luther. He relies here on Engels’ argument that it was Luther’s translation of the Bible from Latin to German which became a spark for Thomas Müntzer and the peasant insurrection against the feudal lords. While Protestantism did not by any means resolve the oppressive religious apparatus, Boer sees Luther’s innovation as both an honest “setting of the problem” of tyrannical ecclesial power. He also recognizes Luther’s contribution to reviving the New Testament tradition of the “priesthood of all believers”, turning “priests into laymen and laymen into priests”. Furthermore, he applauds Luther’s assault upon the blindness of ecclesial devotion, replacing it instead with the fire of conviction. Luther’s innovation (which Luther also combated!) is evidenced by the fruit of the Radical Reformation of the 16th century, which bloomed into the Hussite insurrection, in the Anabaptist movement, and into the German peasant wars. These movements – grounded in apocalyptic Christian heterodoxy, shook feudal Christendom to its very core. As Boer argues here, prior to scientific socialism, the entire horizon of German ideology was theological. It was not until the advent of the Protestant Reformation which opened up this horizon to the labourers, to peasants, and to women, allowing their real participation in the realm of ideological struggle through heretical interpretations of scripture. These readings were unquestionably rooted in their experience of class oppression, their desire for retribution against the wealthy, and the dream of a radical re-organization of society. This dream was pursued in a variety of creative ways during the radical reformation, often returning to the communism of consumption which first emerged in the early church. The key advance during the turmoil of the 16th Century was that these experiments were achieved through armed struggle of the peasantry and resulted in huge military victories against the ruling class, often resulting in the seizure entire towns and cities.
In his assessment of christian communism during the October Revolution, Boer rejects the standard liberal reading: in which militant godless Bolsheviks seized power with the primary goal of destroying religion. While the Bolsheviks certainly fought against and suppressed the reactionary elements of the church, Boer is more interested in the way that the Bolsheviks found common cause with the peasantry, whose entire worldview was theological, and whose economic subsistence was feudal. The author outlines a brief history of Russian peasant socialism, a tradition which found its roots in Tolstoy under Tsarism. Tolstoy was the first to attack the collusion of the Orthodox church and the feudal ruling class against the peasantry, and from Tolstoy, the slogan “the land is God’s” emerges: the first real demand for land reform under Tsarist Russia. In practice, peasant socialism was an experiment in christian communism; firmly committed to collectivism and willing to respect good government authority in the spirit of Romans 13. While its motives were largely idealist, peasant socialism put forward an alternative communistic life that functioned in practice as an actual critique of the principalities and powers, even to the point of revolutionary rupture. In looking forward to the future coming of the Kingdom, it drew from the examples of the early church. Peasant socialism was one of the early forms of communal living in the Russian Empire, an experiment later evolved into the Bolshevik project of collective farming.
One of the innovations of the Bolsheviks as they worked to unite the industrial working class with the struggles of the peasantry was seen in the birth of a group called “the God-Builders”, a group of Marxists intent on multiplying the emotional power of Marxism by drawing upon Christian myth. While the God-Builders invoked the Hebrew prophets in their revolutionary proclamations, they also understood the limitations of such invocations. As the prophetic impulse is only made possible in the context of a reactionary society – the prophets are thus “hobbled” as critics, incapable of putting forward a truly revolutionary program for the re-organization of society. In a unique reading of the Bible, the group claimed the October Revolution as a world-historic spiritual victory, paralleled by the Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Their spiritual enemy was Gnosticism – seen as the anti-materialist corruption of Christianity. The group also held a high admiration for the Apostle Paul in his ability to reshape the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ into a new myth, thereby realizing these as political categories of the revolutionary subject, a subject saved by justification through conviction alone, negating the claims to salvation of the rich and powerful of the world.
As professor in philosophy at Rennin University of China, Boer devotes a significant section of the book to the history of the sinification of Christianity, particularly in the revolutionary experiments that took place in this process. One such movement – the Taiping Revolution which formed the bedrock of later anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolutions in China, draws his attention in particular.
This revolution was sparked by Hong Xiuquan, inspired through his interpretation of a Bible he received from a missionary. Furious with the evils of the Imperial system, he was drawn to the idea of the Kingdom of God as a means of liberation for the oppressed – a message which resonated among a increasingly militant peasantry, many of whom were already taking to banditry against the emperor as a means of survival. As the movement grew, the Bible became its central inspiration, (significantly edited to suit their purposes) functioning as the basic guidelines for the radical re-organization of society which included land reform, gender equality. and all goods held in common. Central to the Taiping Revolution was a heterodox interpretation of scripture, centred on a radical monotheism, in which God’s coming reign became the measure of actually existing in society, a radical move which signalled the death toll of the Imperial system. While Mao asserted that the Taiping Revolution was not indigenous (viewing it as a western incursion) he also recognized that the movement initiated by Hong Xiuquan was at the time the fullest culmination of centuries of peasant revolts – marking the first blow against both the Imperial system and foreign colonization. Most significantly, the Republican Revolution of 1911 self-identified as the heir of the Taiping Revolution.
Noting the later invasion of foreign protestant missionaries, which like the opium wars functioned as a tool of western colonization during China’s “century of humiliation”, Boer notes how the Boxer Rebellion (in its fully justified assault upon the colonial occupiers) at times lashed out at more than its target. At times suspected of collaboration with the colonial forces, Chinese Christians often became a target of the rebellion as well. The effect of this pushed many revolutionary Chinese Christians to clarify their positions in support of the struggle.
Building from Kautsky’s work “Foundations of Christianity”, the theologian Zhu Weizi wrote “Jesus the Proletarian” in the 1950s, while Wu Yaozong offered a unique analysis of the Gospel through the lens of historical materialism. Meanwhile, Wu Leichuan attacked the hegemony of Confucian “social harmony”, unearthing a shared universalism of both Moses and Christ – figures who he argued were revolutionaries fighting to transcend the social order of their time. One common threads of these theologians included revealing Jesus as a proletarian revolutionary, a figure who offered a direct challenge to Rome in his assault upon centres of political, economic, and religious power in Jerusalem, Another key theme was Jesus’ proclamation of a new social order: the Kingdom of God. These thinkers drew a direct parallel between Jesus and Marx, arguing that Christianity and materialism had a great deal in common. Recognizing the universalism of Christianity, they saw it was a system with immense revolutionary potential. Most importantly, these Marxist theologians successfully worked to carry out the sinification of both Marx and Jesus, taking what they found useful in western thought and adopting it as their own within Chinese culture in support of revolution.
Boer concludes his survey of christian communism in his exposition of Chondism in the DPRK (North Korea). A form of revolutionary religion indigenous to Korea, and paralleling some aspects of Christianity, Chondism is a faith which became an immense spiritual resource in the construction of Korean communism. Its pillars include the belief in the divine immanence of all, patriotism & anti-colonialism, and views the construction of the Kingdom of God as an emancipatory political project to be constructed on earth. It found its feet among the peasantry, particularly in Korea’s struggle against Japan, offering the oppressed a sense of intrinsic worth denied to them by Confucianism and Japanese occupation. On what he calls “Juche Theology”, Boer concludes that Korean religion proves that Christian communism can actually move beyond the margins – playing a constructive role where socialism is in power, as is the case with religion in the DPRK. In Chondism and Korean Christianity, he identifies a mature religious system which centres subjective intervention in history, daring to claim that collectively, humanity can become destiny itself.
While the book fails to engage with the rich tradition of Liberation Theology, it does offer a broad overview of the history of Christianity and socialism, particularly as it relates to the East. Red Theology is a great resource for anyone interested in the intersection of theology, history and Marxism, making for a very accessible read. Once again, with this book Boer proves himself to be one of the great modern thinkers capable of bringing together the light of the Marxist tradition and the history of Christian praxis.
transfigurations 