While discussing communism, the question arises: why exactly did East Germany become the place where the experiment on the realization of the Marxian utopia of building a communist society was destined to occur? It is essential to understand that there is no definite answer to this question. As the author of the work rightly noted, the analyzed ideology impacted East Germany because this region was transferred under the control of the Communist Party.
It took time for humanity to realize the scale of the catastrophe brought by communism. However, one should agree with the author that the most crucial is to answer the question of the responsibility of Christians for the emergence and spread of ideology. Indeed, communism teaches people to renounce faith in God, and such a refusal must be systematic. Although the Bible does not mention the term capitalism, it deals with many economic issues. For example, entire sections of the book of Proverbs and many of Jesus’ teachings are devoted to economics. From these texts, people learn what their relationship to wealth should be and how Christians should handle their finances. The author correctly notes the dangers caused by the capitalist regime — laziness and greed. However, mentioning laziness, it should be said that it can act as a form of protest against the non-stop race of consumption and achievement that prevails under a capitalist system of government. Nevertheless, it is vital for a Christian to preserve moral values and stay free from sinful desires and actions under any regime.
In recent years, when people have a revival of religious feeling and many atheists come to faith, people often hear that Christianity and communism have the same ideals. At the same time, the commandments of Christianity and the dogmas of communism are antagonistic. However, as the author rightly notes, an essential motive for the church’s activity is love and care for one another. In contrast, the followers of the communist model are often guided by greed. One must agree with the author that communism appears as a false religion; it even creates its counterfeit gospel. Communist ideology claims to have its version of the creation of the world and the origin of man (Darwinism).
Today it is widely believed that the idea of communism is great, but in the process of implementation, it was perverted. Be that as it may, under communism, terrible things happened that went against the theoretical postulates of ideology. Among these things are numerous casualties, class inequality, but most importantly – unprecedented persecution of believers, destruction of the religion, and the dominance of an atheistic way of life.
However, the author correctly noted that capitalism does not solve the spectrum of the indicated problems since capitalism makes it possible to concentrate many benefits in a small number of people. A capitalist society is a society in which everything is subordinated and optimized precisely from this point of view – obtaining private profit at any cost. That is, people in such a society will not strive to improve the well-being of others. Instead, they will act based on economic necessity, which is unacceptable from the point of view of Christian ethics. In general, capitalist systems support a system of economic oppression and social inequality of people. Such a system will never be able to prove its essence empirically as a faith.
References
Andreff, Wladimir. The Unintended Emergence of a Greed-Led Economic System. Paris: Emerald Group Publishing, 2018, Web.
Blanton IV, Thomas. “Economics and Early Christianity.” Religious Studies Review 43, no. 2 (2017): 93-100, Web.
Butler, Stephen. “The Impact of Advanced Capitalism on Well-being: An Evidence-Informed Model.” Hu Arenas 2, (2019): 200–227, Web.
Christiaens, Tim. “Neoliberalism and the Right to be Lazy: Inactivity as Resistance in Lazzarato and Agamben.” Rethinking Marxism 2, no. 30 (2018): 256-274.
Duncan, Peter J.S. and Schimpfössl, Elizabeth. Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives. London: UCL Press, 2019, Web.
Kirby, Dianne. (2018). “The Roots of the Religious Cold War: Pre-Cold War Factors.” Social Sciences 7, no. 56 (2018): 1-1, Web.