Christianity and the Social Revolution

From Karl Polanyi
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Table of Contents

Part I - Socialism in Historical Christianity

  • I. The Good Life - Wystan Auden
    • I. The Politic of the Gospels
    • II. The Means of Realisation
    • III. The Political Mind
    • IV. Psychology and Religion
    • V. Communism and Psychology
    • VI. Communism and Religion
    • VII. The Christian Dilemma
  • II. Jesus - Conrad Noel
    • I. The World Plan of Jesus
    • II. The Temptations
    • III. The Social Gospel of the Old Testament
    • IV. The Gospel of the Kingdom
    • V. Jesus, Militant
  • III. The Jesus of History - John Lewis
    • I. Jesus or Christ
    • II. Loss and Gain
    • III. The Apocalyptic Jesus
    • IV. Marxism and Apocalyptic
    • V. Jesus' Quarrel with the Church
    • VI. The Christ of the Mystery Cults
  • IV. The Early Church - Gilbert Clive Binyon
    • I. The Church and the Pagan World
    • II. The Creed-Gospel and the Social Problem
    • III. Christianity and the Old Testament
    • IV. The Hope of Divine Interventions
    • V. The Aloofness of the Church
    • VI. The Church To-day
  • V. Communism in the Middle Age - R. Pascal
    • I. Economic and Political Determinants of Medieval Communism
    • II. Religious Communism
    • III. The Peasant Risings
    • IV. Conclusion
  • VI. Laud, the Levellers, and the Virtuosi - Joseph Needham
    • I. Seventeenth-Century England
    • II. The Laudian Divines
    • III. The Levellers
    • IV. The Virtuosi
    • V. The Rise of Mechanistic Economics
    • VI. Conclusion
  • VII. Christian Socialism in England in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Gilbert Clive Binyon
    • I. Socialism's Need of the Christian Philosophy
    • II. Christian Socialists
    • III. Recent Christian Social Movements
    • IV. Christian Sociology
    • V. Conlusion

Part II - Communism and Religion

  • I. The Early Development of Marx's Thought - John Macmurray
    • I. Introduction
    • II. The Transition from “Idea“ to Actuality
    • III. Development of a Dialectical Sociology
    • IV. Bourgeois Democracy
    • V. The “Earthly and the “Heavenly” Citizenship
    • VI. The Economic Factor
  • II. What Communism Stands for - John Cornford
    • I. Primitive and Contemporary Communism Contrasted
    • II. Why Capitalism Declines
    • III. The Period Permanent Crisis and War
    • IV. The Limitation of Production under Capitalism
    • V. The Historic Mission of the Working Class
    • VI. The Rise of Scientific Socialism
    • VII. The Character of Reorganised Society
    • VIII. The Capitalist State and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
    • IX. The Pre-Conditions of Revolution
  • III. Communism and Religion - Ivan Levisky
    • I. Comparative Religion
    • II. Religion and Science
    • III. The Metaphysical Basis of Communism
    • IV. Bourgeois Rationalism
    • V. Religion in Russia
    • VI. Is Communism a Religion?
    • VII. Religion in the West
    • VIII. Catholicism, Communism and the Masses
    • IX. Reformism in the Church
    • X. The Incompatibility of Marxism and Christianity
    • XI. Conclusion
  • IV. Christianity and Communism in the Light of the Russian Revolution - Julius F. Hecker
    • I. The Approach of the Problem
    • II. The Disintegration of the Russian Orthodox Church
    • III. Efforts at Rejuvenating the Orthodox Church under Communism
    • IV. Nonconformity and Communism
    • V. The Communist Point of View on the Problem
    • VI. What in Place of Religion?
  • V. Communism and Morality
    • I. Morals and History
    • II. Property
    • III. Sex and Marriage after the Revolution
    • IV. The Class Struggle
    • V. Some Problems of Transition
    • VI. Man the Measure

Part III - Dies Irae

I. The Essence of Fascism - Karl Polanyi

    • I. Fascist Anti-Individualism
    • II. Atheist and Christian Individualism
    • III. The Solutions
    • IV. “Soul” versus Mind
    • V. Spann, Hegel and Marx
    • VI. Klages, Nietzsche and Marx
    • VII. Racialism and Mysticism
    • VIII. Vitalism Victorious
    • IX. The Sociology of Fascism

II. Moral Sanctions and the Social Function or Religion - Bruno Meier

    • I. Calvinists, Baptists, and the Ascetic Motives
    • II. Legalism and a Corrupt Social Order
    • III. The Pessimistic-Idealistic Attitude
    • IV. Positivism and Non-Religious Moralism
    • V. Religion and the Social Movement

III. Science, Religion and Socialism - Joseph Needham

    • I. Introduction
    • II. The Position of the Scientific Worker
    • III. The Treason of the Scholars
    • IV. The Concept of the Kingdom
    • V. Philosophy, History, Science, Art and Religion
    • VI. Against Philosophy and Science
    • VII. Against Art and History
    • VIII. Against and Religion
    • IX. Scientific Opium
    • X. “Christianity Theology the Grandmother of Bolshevism”

IV. Christian Politics and Communist Religion - Reinhold Niebuhr

    • I. Introduction
    • II. The Inadequacy of Christian Politics
    • III. Communism as a Religion
    • IV. Towards a Christian Political Ethic

V. Communism the Heir to the Christian Tradition - John Lewis

    • I. Priest and Prophet
    • II. Secular and Sacred
    • III. Religion and Science
    • IV. Religion and Reform
    • V. Dualism in Philosophy and Religion
    • VI. The Economic Basis of Dualism
    • VII. Rationalism and Irrationalism in Ethics
    • VIII. Transition
    • IX. Apocalyptic

VI. Christianity and Communism: Towards a Synthesis - John Macmurray

[…] [509] Christianity breeds Liberalism, Liberalism breeds Socialism, and Socialism breeds Communism. Fascism, therefore, thought it might be compatible with some form of religion, and may stand in need of some religious movement to support its claims, cannot look to any form of Christianity for support.

[…]

[511] To be compatible with a truly Socialist form of society, modern Christianity would have to submit to a reformation comparable only with the one which closed the medieval epoch. The synthesis of modern Christianity and modern Communism which I believe to be not merely possible, but urgently necessary in the interests of both, as well as of humanity, could leave neither unaltered.

Contributors

Gilbert Clive Binyon Vicar of Bilsdale, Yorkshire
John Cornford Trinity College, Cambridge
Julius F. Hecker Moscow University
Ivan Levisky
John Lewis Lecturer in Social Philosophy under the Cambridge Extra-Mural Board
John Macmurray Grote Professor of Philosophy, London University
Bruno Meier
A.L. Morton
Joseph Needham Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge
Reinhard Niebuhr Professor of Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
Conrad Noel Vicar of Thaxted, Essex
R. Pascal Lecturer in German, Cambridge University
Karl Polanyi

Text Informations

Reference:
Original Publication: Christianity and the Social Revolution (with LEWIS John and KITCHIN Donald K. (dirs.)), London, Victor Gollancz, 526 p.
KPA: 13/05 (contract), 13/07 (reviews)

See also

  • In Abraham Rotstein "Weekend Notes": IV, (2) XII.