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God, freedom and grace. Reflections about essentiality of the atheism for Marx and marxism
Miroslav Volf
Abstract
One of the key questions in th e Marxist-Christian Dialogue, which needs to be revived in the light of recent developments in socialistic countreis, is the question whether atheism is essential for Marxism. There is a growing consensus of open-minded Christians and Marxists aibout the accidentalness of atheism for Marxism. Operating with the assumption th a t recourse to Marx’ theory is 'indispensable for Marxism, th is essay attempts to show th a t such oonsensus is justified only if Marxists are willing consciously to distantiate themselves from some important aspetcs of Marx’ critique of religion, anthropology and theory of emancipation. In order to support this thesis the essay takes up th e well- lcnown view about the origin of Marx’ atheism in his anthropological assumption that human beings a re the highest beings for themselves, supports it with new arguments, and defends it from some recent critical objections. The goal of the essay is to state the conditions u nder which it is meaningful from a Christian perspective to speak about Christians, who are also Marxists, and about Marxists, who are also Christians.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
85493
URI
Publication date:
15.3.1989.
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