Communism, Christianity, and the Judgment of God

It has become a platitude among all right-thinking people that major responsibility for the upsurge of Communism in the modern world is to be traced to the “failure of the Church” in meeting the problems of the day, so that Communism is, in a very important sense, to be taken as a “judgment” of God upon the Church and its failures. I say this notion has become a platitude among all right-thinking people, and it seems slightly indecent to question it. Yet, like other idées reçues, it must be subject to periodic scrutiny ifitisto preserve any meaning at all. After all, what does this notion mean, what considerations can be adduced to justify it, and what implications does it hold for our present perplexities?

Will Herberg

WH

About the Author

Will Herberg

Featured Tags

It has become a platitude among all right-thinking people that major responsibility for the upsurge of Communism in the modern world is to be traced to the “failure of the Church” in meeting the problems of the day, so that Communism is, in a very important sense, to be taken as a “judgment” of God upon the Church and its failures. I say this notion has become a platitude among all right-thinking people, and it seems slightly indecent to question it. Yet, like other idées reçues, it must be subject to periodic scrutiny ifitisto preserve any meaning at all. After all, what does this notion mean, what considerations can be adduced to justify it, and what implications does it hold for our present perplexities?

Will Herberg