Communism & Christian Faith

The best anti-Communism will come not only out of a determined opposition to all that Communism stands for, but it will come, even more so, out of the best dedication to the goals of freedom, of justice, of equity, of brotherhood, of the Christian life. -Lester DeKoster

A century has passed since the Russian Revolution, and many in the current generation regard even the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe as ancient history. But Karl Marx’s ideological legacy remains strong. While the specter of this nineteenth-century thinker perhaps loomed largest in the twentieth century, today Marx’s ideas continue to fall on fertile soil-even among Christians. In Communism & Christian Faith, written at the height of the Cold War, Lester DeKoster offers a concise and incisive guide to the fundamentals of Marxism and draws a clear contrast between Communism and Christianity. While deeply critical of Communism, DeKoster reads Communist sources with care, avoids caricatures, and recognizes that Communism’s attention to problems of suffering, exploitation, and injustice calls for a clear and positive Christian social vision.