The doctrine of Marx and Engels: history moves by the struggle of classes over the means of production, toward a society without classes or state.
Marxism begins with Karl Marx's reading of history as material conflict and of capitalism as a system that must consume itself. Around that core, parties, states, and schools have built orthodoxies and heresies for a century and a half: Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, and the critical theory of the West among them. It is at once an analysis of economics, a philosophy of history, and, in power, a governing creed whose record its adherents and its critics read very differently.
Marxism across the site
Essays (20) · History of Worldviews (19)
Sources
Primary
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848).
Secondary
- Leszek Kołakowski, Main Currents of Marxism (1976).
How this compares to Christianity
How does this branch relate to the historic Christian faith?
This assessment has not yet been reviewed. Every verdict below stands at Not yet reviewed until the named theological reviewers supply it.
- Does it consider itself Christian?
- Not yet reviewed
- Did it arise from the Christian tradition?
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- Does it affirm the ecumenical creeds?
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- Is it recognized as Christian by the historic bodies?
- the Catholic Church: Not yet reviewed
- the Eastern Orthodox Church: Not yet reviewed
- the Oriental Orthodox churches: Not yet reviewed
- conciliar Protestant bodies: Not yet reviewed
- the WCC / National Council of Churches: Not yet reviewed
- This site's assessment
- Not yet reviewed
- Reviewer
- Not yet reviewed. The theological reviewers are named on the criteria page when they are appointed.
The comparative record for this entity, its points of convergence and divergence across the ten loci, has not yet been populated. It stands in the assessment queue on the criteria page.
What this assessment cannot settle
This assessment determines what this entity teaches and how that teaching relates to the historic Christian creeds. It does not determine whether any person is saved, whether God accepts their worship, whether they are sincere, or whether the criteria applied here are correct.
This assessment is made from the standpoint described in our editorial statement and our criteria page. It reports classifications; it does not rank sincerity, spiritual standing, or the eternal state of any person.