Skip to content

Analytical Summary: The Origins of Christianity

Spectre Of Communism · 2023-12-12

Spectre of Communism Podcast (Against the Stream / RCI)

Core Argument

The central thesis is that early Christianity was not a divinely revealed religion but a class movement of the poor and dispossessed in Judea, emerging from the material conditions of Roman imperial oppression and the traumatic defeat of the Great Jewish Revolt (66–70 CE). Alan Woods argues that the historical Jesus is a figure for whom no credible contemporary evidence exists — the sole non-Christian source (Flavius Josephus) is a proven forgery, and the Gospels were written decades later by unknown authors, contradicting each other on key points. The real origin of Christianity lies in the class struggle of Judean society: the priestly Sadducees, the bourgeois-nationalist Pharisees, the militant Zealots, and the communistic Essenes. The early Christians were communists who held goods in common, hated the rich, and promised justice to the enslaved and destitute. However, their communism was primitive — a communism of consumption, not of production — because the material conditions for genuine communism did not yet exist. After the defeat of 70 CE, the movement abandoned hope for justice on earth and turned to otherworldly consolation. Over subsequent centuries, the church was bought, corrupted, and absorbed into the Roman state, transforming from a revolutionary sect of the poor into a pillar of wealth and oppression. The argument concludes that modern capitalism has now created the material base for real communism, making religious consolation unnecessary.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is grounded in historical materialism applied to religion — a tradition within Marxism that runs from Engels through Kautsky to the present. Woods draws explicitly on:

  • Karl Kautsky's The Foundations of Christianity — the key Marxist text on the subject, which treats early Christianity as a revolutionary movement of the poor that failed due to insufficient material conditions.
  • Friedrich Engels's writings on early Christianity, particularly his analysis of the Book of Revelation as the most authentic expression of first-century Christian consciousness — the voice of a defeated, persecuted people cursing their oppressors.
  • Bruno Bauer's work on the New Testament authors as plagiarists of pagan philosophers (Philo and Seneca), demonstrating the syncretic character of Christian doctrine.
  • Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — cited approvingly for its account of the corruption of the early church hierarchy.

The theoretical framework treats religion not as a realm of autonomous ideas but as a superstructural expression of class relations and material conditions. The key explanatory move is that the form of early Christian belief — otherworldly salvation, the kingdom not of this world — is explained by the defeat of the Jewish masses. The shift from revolutionary hope to passive consolation is not a theological development but a political one, determined by the balance of class forces.

The analysis sits within the classical Marxist tradition that sees religion as both an expression of suffering and a protest against it — the "opium of the people" in its dual sense. It does not engage with later Western Marxist approaches (e.g., the Frankfurt School's treatment of religion as ideology) or with contemporary biblical scholarship, but it does not need to: its purpose is to demonstrate the explanatory power of historical materialism for a phenomenon usually treated as beyond its reach.

Conjunctural Relevance

The episode's relevance to the current conjuncture operates on several levels:

1. The method of historical materialism as a weapon against idealism. In a period of intensified ideological confusion — where religious fundamentalism (Christian, Islamic, Hindu) is resurgent alongside New Age spiritualism — the episode demonstrates that Marxism can explain the origin and transformation of religion without conceding any ground to supernatural explanation. This is not an academic exercise: the RCI's political project requires breaking the hold of religious ideology on the working class, particularly in regions where the church remains a powerful political force (Latin America, Africa, the Philippines).

2. The parallel between early Christianity and modern revolutionary movements. Engels's observation that early Christianity "has notable points of resemblance to the modern working class movement" is given concrete content: both are persecuted, both attract the most oppressed layers of society, both are accused of being enemies of social order. The implication is that the working class movement today faces the same choice that early Christianity faced — between revolutionary intransigence and absorption into the existing order. The difference is that the material conditions for communism now exist, so the outcome need not be the same.

3. The mechanism of co-optation. Woods's account of how the church was bought — bishops invited to imperial banquets, the hierarchy corrupted by wealth and status — is presented as a universal pattern. The same methods, he argues, are used today to corrupt trade union leaders and labour movements. This speaks directly to the RCI's critique of reformism and opportunism: the pressure on movement leaders to abandon revolutionary principles in exchange for a place at the table is not a moral failing but a structural feature of class society.

4. The church as a material force in capitalism. The episode ends by noting the Vatican's vast wealth and investments in banking, chemicals, and real estate. This is not incidental: it positions the church as a direct component of the capitalist system, not merely an ideological apparatus. The reference to evangelical sects as "money-making machines" connects to contemporary debates about the prosperity gospel and the political role of conservative Christianity in imperialist states.

Where the Argument Continues

This episode is a live recording of a talk originally delivered to Socialist Appeal (the British section of the International Marxist Tendency, now the Revolutionary Communist Party). It is introductory in character — designed to demonstrate the power of historical materialism to a general audience, not to exhaust the subject.

The argument continues in several directions:

  • Kautsky's The Foundations of Christianity is the obvious next text. Woods recommends it explicitly and draws heavily on it. It develops the class analysis of Judean society, the role of the Essenes, and the transformation of the early church in far greater detail.
  • Engels's essay on the Book of Revelation (in On the History of Early Christianity) is referenced but not quoted at length. It provides the theoretical framework for understanding why a defeated movement turns to apocalyptic otherworldliness.
  • The question of the historical Jesus is treated cursorily here — Woods asserts the case for non-existence but does not develop it. The broader Marxist literature on this (including the work of Bruno Bauer and the Dutch Radical School) would be the natural extension.
  • The Council of Nicaea and the formation of the canon is mentioned but not explored. The process by which certain texts were included and others suppressed — and the political struggles behind it — is a rich area that other episodes of Spectre of Communism or Against the Stream might address.
  • The persistence of "communistic" heresies — the Arians, Donatists, Circumcellions — is noted but not developed. These movements represent the continued resistance to the church's transformation into a state apparatus, and their suppression foreshadows later struggles.

Connections

Primary texts: - Karl Kautsky, The Foundations of Christianity (1908) - Friedrich Engels, On the History of Early Christianity (1894–95) - Bruno Bauer, Christ and the Caesars (1877) - Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–89)

Within the RCI corpus: - Other Spectre of Communism episodes on the history of revolutionary movements and the application of historical materialism - Against the Stream episodes dealing with religion and ideology, particularly in the context of imperialism (e.g., the role of the church in Latin America, the rise of evangelical Christianity in Africa)

Broader Marxist tradition: - Marx's Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right — the classic formulation on religion as both expression of suffering and protest against it - Lenin's Socialism and Religion (1905) — on the political attitude of revolutionary Marxists toward religion - Rosa Luxemburg's writings on the mass strike and the spontaneous revolutionary energy of the oppressed — parallels to the early Christian movement's character as a mass movement of the poor

Key Quotes

  1. "The early Christians were communists. Oh, yes, they didn't believe in private property. They were much more radical than us, by the way. ... If you joined them, you had to give up all your worldly goods, your house, your wealth. You had to hand over the lot."

  2. "The history of early Christianity has notable points of resemblance to the modern working class movement. Both are persecuted and baited. Their adherents are despised and made the object of exclusive laws. And in spite of all persecution, nay, even spurred on by it, they forged victoriously ahead." (Engels, quoted by Woods)

  3. "These early Christians had a powerful message for all these enslaved and oppressed and exploited people of the earth. It's no longer a message of rebellion, because they've been defeated, they've been crushed. They don't see any hope of any justice in this life. Rather, it offers consolation, the consolation of eternal life after death."

  4. "The ruling class always have two ways of dealing with problematic movements, dangerous movements. One is by violent means of repression, and the other is by bribery and corruption. And they apply both these methods."

  5. "When we have created a paradise in this world based on a nationalised planned harmonious economy, we will not require any dream about a paradise in the next one. And unlike the early Christians, whose courageous example we can follow in many respects, we will not fail. We will conquer."