Christianity vs Marxism

• The Catholic Churches Response to Liberation Theology

  •The Catholic Church became concerned with Liberation theology's use of Marxist theories.

  •Cardinal Ratzinger articulated the Catholic disquiet.

  •He argued that the Catholic Church will continue to struggle for the poor but using its own means and its own ways.

  •Christianity cannot adopt a Marxist analysis without changing from a Christian world view to a Marxist world view because Marxism is inherently unchristian.
• Kloppenburgs criticisms of liberation theology

  •Kloppenburg in ‘Temptations for the Theology of Liberation’ argues that by equating theology with political action, one side-lines the spiritual messages of Christianity.

  •It emphasises structural sin over personal sin, despite the fact that Jesus spoke of individual forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

  •It places too much emphasis on people being able to deliver liberation and salvation, whereas salvation is a gift from God.
• Criticisms from McBrien towards liberation theology

  •In an article written for liberationtheologyy.org Richard McBrien adds that liberation theology seems to focus almost exclusively on some biblical themes e.g poverty in Exodus, at the expense of others.

  •It defines oppression in economic terms, ignoring other kinds of oppression that derive from cultural forces e.g sexism and racism.
• Marx called religion an ‘opiate’. An opiate does two things: dulls pain and also prevents action. Those are the two things Marx thought religion did to control people. Dulling the pain of their life with the promise of heaven and dulling their desire to act to remedy the injustice with the lie that it’s all going to work out in the end in heaven.
• Jesus said, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” - Matthew 6:25 
• Jesus said “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ – Matthew 19:24. 
• Camara - In relation to the Catholic Church’s rejection of liberation theology - “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist”. - Camara’s point here could be taken to show that the traditional Church is fulfilling Marx’s critique of religion as serving the interests of the powerful, by refusing to deal with the economic structural causes of poverty. 
• Marx believed that there is a struggle at the centre of life, which can be seen as true through examples such as child abuse, poverty, human trafficking.
• Christianity can be seen to focus more on the individual’s struggle, providing more practical help for people struggling with oppression.
• Marx does not provide comfort for those who die in the struggle to achieve a classless society
• Christianity offers insights into the human experience and provides spiritual hope by teaching that God loves you.
• In identifying the Church as an institution affected by structural sin it denies the God given authority of the Church. Not to mention the side-lining of 2000 years of theological tradition.
• Cardinal Ratzinger believed that you could not break down Marxism. If you accepted some of it you had to accept all of it.
• The Catholic church proposes a different human centred approach to deal with the suffering of the poor. It focuses on the common good of all people.
• Where Marxism has led to revolution it is not clear whether this approach has been successful in bringing about better conditions for the poor - it is because of the state of the poor that communists states have been overthrown.
• Christianity has a more holistic approach to social issues than Marxism, which focuses too much on the poor.
• Christianity is global: it works on a local level as appropriate, which is more effective than the more general approach of Marxism.
• Christianity is not radical enough when it comes to social issues. Marxism is the only way to bring about social change.
• Christianity places too much emphasis on orthodoxy and so cannot engage fully with social issues.
• Christianity is global but yet has not made a major impact on the inequalities of the world.
• Some might argue that to overcome inequalities of the world it requires people of varying ideologies coming together to battle injustice.