Page 18 - The Basic Conflict between Christianity and Communism

changes in all departments. First there is the THESIS, a set of ideas dealing with any

and every aspect of life. Then there comes the ANTITHESIS, which poses many
objections to the thesis and points out the contradictions. From the conflict between
the thesis and the antithesis, there comes the SYNTHESIS which conserves the
elements of truth in both the thesis and the antithesis and combines them. Then that

remains for a while until a new thesis is advanced and the process is repeated on an
advanced level. Each step “negates” the previous step. The antithesis negates the
former synthesis. These cycles go on and in until all contradictions are finally
eliminated and the ABSOLUTE is reached. Of course nothing to date has ever been

attained that even closely approaches the Absolute and will not for a long while, but
that is alleged to be the final end.

Marx took over this principle of the dialectic and translated into dialectical
materialism to explain his economic theories. He saw five forms of production─the

primitive communal, slave, feudal, capitalist and socialist. Through each ran the
threads of thesis, antithesis and synthesis as one gave place to another. He was mainly
concerned with the last three and to show by laborious and sometimes plausible

reasoning how capitalism had “negated” the synthesis of feudalism and how
Socialism in its thesis had negated capitalism and that the antithesis is seen in the
violent opposition of the capitalist world to the socialistic thesis. When socialism
finally prevails, Marx believed the ultimate synthesis would be attainted─THE

ABSOLUTE. The absolute in socialism is pure communism. The Marxian theorists
even though called Communists deny that pure communism has yet been attained.

Hegel, being the Court philosopher of Germany, exalted the State. He contended

that while the WHOLE or absolute is alone completely real, the parts partake of
reality as they are related to it, and that “the State is the Divine idea as it exists on
earth.” One commentator says of Hegel “…the two most important modern political
movements derive from him. Through his dialectic as revised by Marx, he became the

source of the proletarian radicalism which culminated in Communism; while through
his idealization of the State, he became the source of that conservative nationalism
which culminated in Fascism…”

The Hegel-Marx interpretation of history catches both the superficial and the
ungodly mind. The superficial mind always seizes upon a plausible simplification
because it seems to be a short-cut to knowledge in two or three easy steps. Such a
mind is too lazy and ignorant to investigate whether the plausibility is really true. The

ungodly mind will seize upon the dialectic theory of government and economics as it

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