Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 34:2 (May 1972)
Article: Anathema or Dialogue?
Author: Robert D. Knudsen

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WTJ 34:2 (May 72) p. 137

Anathema or Dialogue?

Robert D. Knudsen

[A paper delivered at the Alumni Homecoming, Westminster Theological Seminary, February 8, 1972.]

A recent visit to the theological assembly lines of Western Europe left me with a startled impression. The minds particularly of the younger theologians have been captured to an overwhelming degree by Karl Marx. It is widely accepted that Marx provided a correct analysis of the ills of Western society, that he rightly challenged this society at its roots, and that it is the calling of the Christian theologian to provide in turn a theological interpretation of Marx’s secular interpretation of history and society and to enter into the revolutionary conflict under the banner of Jesus Christ.

Anyone who is truly familiar with the theological discussion of the twenties through the fifties will understand that encounter with the thought of Karl Marx and with communism is no novelty. He will remember that there has been considerable sympathy for its social and political analyses and that Protestant theologians have often attempted to steer a course politically between East and West. But at the moment the attachment appears to have become more direct, less hesitant, having lost much of its subtlety.

The evaluation of the appropriateness of the Marxian analyses by the current theological generation is reflected in the words of Paul Lehmann of Princeton Theological Seminary: “…while we are living in a post-Christian world, we are not living in a post-Marxian one. Marxism-Leninism is still the bearer of the revolutionary ferment of our time. It is the bearer of this ferment in the sense that despite the stresses and strains of power, of heresy and schism within the communist movement, the Marxist-Leninist account of the impact of power upon social change and of social change upon power is still the point from

WTJ 34:2 (May 72) p. 138

which to take our bearings in the revolutionary situation in which we live.”1

In an article for the important series “Studies on Marxism,” published for the Research Commission of German Evangelical Academies, Heinz Eduard Tödt presents a sketch of the discussion of Marxism in ecumenical circles that has issued in a Marxist-Christian dialogue.2

An early period of discussion runs from the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work of 1925 in Stockholm to 1934. At this conference, Tödt says, there was a definite attack on capitalism led by delegates from North America and supported by delegates from England and France. This anti-capitalism left room for strong sympathy for sociali...

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