Marxism/Marx Against the Marxists
Baum, Gregory
Kirkrid e ...... EYent s: GAY, LESBIAN & CHRI.STIAN JUNE 12-14, 1981 John McNeill~ C. He yward, AI ~armines~ .Bev Harrison TRAINING IN THE ART OF BIBLE STUDY JUNE 16-22,...
...the curious conclusion that Hegel regarded Christianity as anachronistic and obsolete...
...In the face of systemic evil the only hopes that now endure have been well grounded, well annealed...
...At the same time, he acknowledged the usefulness of Marxism as a form of social analysis...
...In the winter of those discontented by Ronald Reagan and John Paul II, by rampant selfishness and straitened faith, genuine edification is especially precious...
...The author shows that Marxist thought and practice have many trends, and that Christians in dialogue with Marxism must distinguish between these trends and clearly define their partners in dialogue and cooperation...
...A careful reading clearly reveals that the author is involved in a socio-political project, that for him the absence of Marxism from American culture is a lacuna with harmful consequences, and that he wants to introduce Marxism into the mainstream of American religious thought...
...Gregory Baum A RTHUR McGOVERN's Marxism: An American Christian Perspective is an eminently useful book on an important eties, it remains largely unknown in North America, even among educated people...
...In the final analysis, these are but cavils...
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...Scholars may object that it covers too much ground, that it does not deal exhaustively with many of the important topics touched upon, and that the author takes sides without always presenting all of his arguments...
...Yet in contrast with the French, the American bishops looked upon Marxism as a system of ideas far removed from their country's cultural tradition...
...Louin~ Tir~ aSb~mnni~t~ork...
...Several national hierarchies have written pastorals on Marxism...
...There was no book that analyzed the evolution of Marx's thought and the development of Marxism after Marx, and then presented the gradual conversion of the Christian churches to greater social concern, recorded their new openness to socialism, and told the story of their dialogue with Marxism...
...Recently the American" hierarchy published a pastoral letter on Marxist thought which was philosophically original and profound...
...One has reason to be unhappy about McGovern's summary of Hegel's thought...
...acterized by atheistic materialism, class war and the denial of private property...
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...EYent s: GAY, LESBIAN & CHRI.STIAN JUNE 12-14, 1981 John McNeill~ C. He yward, AI ~armines~ .Bev Harrison TRAINING IN THE ART OF BIBLE STUDY JUNE 16-22, 1981 Walter Wink, Shar...
...Both books are honest confessions of faith...
...NABX AGAINST TIlE NARXISTS Jose Miranda Orbis Books, $12.95, 316 pp...
...Turning and Creative Dislocation built up this reader's hopes that the twofold command, the one same love, really can be enough...
...However, insofar as he has been deeply engaged in the social and political movements of the past twenty-five years, his journey has been scenic indeed: the deep South of the Civil Rights struggle, the Rome of Vatican II, Vietnam and the Pentagon, South Africa and Cuba...
...Church and State, pulpit and lectern --Brown has scanned faith in them all...
...Storytelllng in Ireland Other unique seminars, religion/ mythology...
...The author shows that there are Christian theologians who have made use of this historical materialism in their understanding of salvation history...
...Public education does not introduce people to the Marxist tradition...
...The first one deals with Marxism...
...FATHER DAVID J. BOWMAN, SJ., served for years as Director of the Ireland program for the National Council of the Churches of Christ and is presently Consultant on Ireland for them...
...Hirni, R. Raines ~"ontact: V~ ~ KIRKR I DGE IA Mountain Retreat Center Bangor, PA 18013 (215) 588-1793 ii i 1 ii to subscribe to COMMONWEAL...
...The disillusions with Stanford and Union Theological Seminary, fine institutions first and God's good servants second, are almost too magnanimous...
...Marx himself was a dem~'crat...
...And no other book has ever succeeded in capturing its special character and qualities so magnificently...
...r~.~Fmegan Pacific School of Religion -A...
...The Cornucopia Project," August 28-30, 1981 (How to work for constructive change in your own food practices and the U.S...
...McGovern has written a brilliant text, the right kind of book for North Americans, in particular for North American Catholics...
...Gonzaga University Desire Priesthood...
...There has been so much grace, there are promises of so much more grace, that he has to write a eucharistia...
...Here the author treats the young Marx and his Hegelian background, the later Marx, and the important controversy on how these two, the young and the old, are related9He then turns to Engels and the Marxism of the European socialdemocratic parties until World War I, including Bernstein's revisionism...
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...Michael's College, Toronto, is the author ~ most recently, of Sociology and Human Destiny...
...The final section of the book offers critical reflections on Marxism and examines the standard arguments raised against it by the older ecclesiastical documents...
...Some Catholic colleges offer courses on Christianity and Marxism...
...It traces the history from the church's official anathema to the willingness to dialogue with Marxists...
...he envisaged a peaceful entry into socialism in developed countries such as England and the United States...
...He offers a positivistic reading of Hegel which leads him to Classified RATES: 70r a word, one time...
...Sixty now, he looks back with both gratitude and sobriety...
...Such a dialectical theory of consciousness does not exclude the creativity of the human spirit nor does it imply an ontological materialism that effectively negates human spirit and divine substance...
...But they never had a suitable textbook...
...Insofar as Brown is not a convert to Christianity, in the normal sense of the term, he reports no technicolor turning that sent him to new commitments...
...McGovern's Marxism is the ideal college text...
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...he spoke of revolution only at certain moments...
...Finally McGovern explores various forms of critical Marxism, especially the Western thinkers, such as Lukacs, the Frankfurt School, Gramsci, Althusser and Garandy...
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...The lucid text and splendid photographs will prepare you for what is there.., when you come home you'll certainly want to'read it agaln.~___jotm Wilkinson British School of Archaeology, Jerusalem Cloth, $29.95 ERDMANS PUBLISHING CO...
...Other readers will feel Griffin stays at too safe a distance from our social cancers and politics, or that she has been packaged too cleverly by Doubleday...
...Again these lessons are offered with blessed specificity...
...Storyfest Productions, 4912 California, #4L, San Francisco 94118...
...It presents an excellent chapter on Latin American Liberation Theology and another equally interesting one on the conflict between "Christians for Socialism" and the Chilean bishops during the Allende years...
...Softbound, 282 pages --$5.95 + $1.00 postage and handling...
...Classified payable with order...
...A first reading of his book may Commonweal: 318 tempt the reader to think that McGovern is an idealist, that he understands his theological task simply as distinguishing between various forms of Marxism and deciding which of these forms can be brought in harmony with certain trends of Christian thought...
...en ti g of a contemporarily vital focus of world attention...
...Both books merit more than a perfunctory good review because they are ' benefactions...
...Since 1971, however, beginning with Paul VI's Octogesima Adveniens, church documents have treated Marxism in a more careful and nuanced manner...
...The book is divided into three sections...
...For this reason McGovern follows Michael Harrington in emphasizing the democratic character of Marxism...
...Here he offers useful summaries, even though the reader familiar with any of these authors may occasionally be disappointed...
...63r six times...
...The motif has been from liberalism to radicalization...
...God has blessed America, but with the ( rest of the North, America faces a terrible reckoning before the Son of Man/King depicted in Matthew 25...
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...Most Americans think of it as alien...
...West CoastRemewofBooks "A .cooperative achievement.., almost equally balanced in its result as a literary and artistic blending, a harmony of word and picture...
...The Holocaust bids all mortal flesh keep silent, yet which of us could contain our hearts' burning when he talked with us on the ( road and explained the scriptures...
...Robert McAfee Brown's warming faith that God uses time for our maturation expresses itself both less dramatically than Griffin's and more...
...Here the author reveals his own point of view...
...The action base of McGovern's work lies in the neighborhood of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee...
...GRANDRAPIDS,MICHIGAN49503 22 May 1981:317 the Russian revolution, and the transformarion of Marxism as the official ideology of the Third International...
...Even Marx's historical materialism, the author argues, was originally a dialectical theory of consciousness, which affumed the primacy of people's material struggle for survival in the creation of their world of ideas...
...Since I am writing this review in Canada, may I add that it is questionable whether the Christian left in this country should try, with McGovern, to rehabiliREVIEWERS DORIS GRUMBACH writes regularly for the New York Times Book Review...
...THE LITURGICAL PRESS, Box 8, Collegeville, MN 56321...
...These are objections that can be raised against any textbook...
...JERUSALEM 7ESUS PHOTOGRAPHYBYGARO NALBANDIAN ~A llne Upyto-dat, summary of archaeologicaland historical knowledge 9 notable for thoroughness undiluted by reli#ous sentimentality...
...Klrkridgo Events Daniel Berrigan on "Peace-Making," June 26-26, 1981, led by Lewis and Ina Morgan...
...monthly in advance for more than three times...
...He shows moreover that this position fits in to the parameters outlined in ecclesiastical teaching since Paul VI...
...They acknowledged as a positive development the influence of cultural Marxism on Catholic theology...
...While the author mentions the primacy of action in pursuit of troth (in connection with Latin American theology), he does not bring it into focus in his final reflections...
...New York, N.Y...
...He distinguishes between dogmatic and critical Marxism, and argues that critical Marxism, open to ongoing historical experience and intellectual revisionism, is useful for Christians dedicated to social justice, even in the United States...
...JOHN CARMODY is the author of The Progressive Pilgrim (Fides/Claretian) and Theology for the 1980s (Westminster...
...In Solitary Witness In Solitary Witness by Gorclon Zahn -The true, unexpurgated story of Franz Jagerstatter, who refused to serve in what he believed was an unjust war and was beheaded by Hitler...
...To what extent does the primacy of action find expression in his book...
...Her books include Chamber Music and The Missing Person...
...The second section deals with the development of Catholic social thought...
...To be sure, some readers will ask Brown to chasten liberation theology with a reading of Marxism like that of Solzhenitsyn...
...B00/d/st (American Lbrary Assooatlon) ~l]tead this book before going toJ~m~alem...
...FATHER DAVID BURRELL, C.S.C., is currently rector of the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research (Tantur) in Jerusalem...
...Then he summarizes Leninism, the impact of "The finest workavailableon Jerusalem in the time of Jesus...
...Until fairly recently, Catholic teaching has encouraged this ignorance...
...The French bishops followed Paul VI, yet they added their own appreciation of 'cultural Marxism' by which they meant the impact of Marxism on the cultural self-understanding of society...
...Rinse THE PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH JUNE 22-28, 1981 Wm Stringfellow, W. Wink, Jn...
...Ecclesiastical documents spoke of Marxism as an unchanging, self-identical system char-t...
...Both are edifying -an old word I wish I could use more often...
...Over 30...
...GREGORY BAUM, professor of religious studies and sociology at St...
...Father Nigro, Gonzaga University, Spokane 99258...
...The marvelous marriage to Sydney shows the reader how more causes, a bigger world, and even painful consciousness-raising can mean faith better broken and shared...
...For further information, rates and registration, write or call: Kirkddge, Bangor, PA 1801 e$35) 588-1793...
...While Marxist thought exerts great AN AMERICAN CHRISTIAN PERSPEC- cultural influence in many Western sociTIVE Arthur F. McGovern Orbis Books, $12.95, 339 pp...
...Commonweal: 316 Paul VI argued that if Marxism is understood as a total philosophy or a Leninist political project, it must be rejected by Christians...
...Sisterhood...
...1 I Christians, messianism, & Marxism NAHISN topic...
...There has been so much dislocation, so many exhibitions of evil, that he has to announce a dies irae...
...ROSEMARY BOOTH is a doctoral candidate and occasional lecturer at Boston University...
...This section deals with the impact of Marxist thought on recent Catholic social teaching, especially the Marxist critique of contemporary capitalism...
...RICHARD deMILLE, whose books include The Don Juan Papers, and Castaneda's Journey, is an associate of Current Anthropology...
...Now such a book exists...
...10016 ['7 One year, $22 17 Two years, $39 1"] i I-issue trial, $ 8 Name Address citY, State, Zip 5~2~i the convert's God matters more and more...
Vol. 108 • May 1981 • No. 10
