World Christianity and Marxism

Denis Janz argues that the encounter with Marxism--our age's dominant formof secularism--has been the defining event for twentieth-century Christianity.No other worldview shook Christianity more seriously and no other movement hashad as profound an impact on so many. Now, at the end of the cold war and as weapproach the end of the century, says Janz, it is time to ask ourselves whathappened. To take the full measure of this historical encounter, the authoroffers case studies of seven very different contexts: the United States, theSoviet Union, Poland, Nicaragua, Cuba, China, and Albania. The experiences ofthese countries vary widely, from Poland where Christianity maintained itsstrongest independence, and Nicaragua where a Christian alliance with Marxismcontributed to revolutionary change, to Albania where a Stalinist governmentattempted to abolish religion entirely. From this survey emerges the evidencethat Christianity's encounter with this alien world of thought has changed it inpermanent and profound ways.

Denis R. Janz is currently Professor of the History of Christianity at Loyola University New Orleans. He is the author and editor of three books and numerous articles on medieval and Reformation Christian thought.