The hidden premise

Latest post in my blog on popular science:
The hidden premise
https://populscience.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-hidden-premise.html

Regards,

I am of Russian (stridently anti-Communist) background, so am familiar with the great role that Marx and Hegel play in Communist ideology. And I can’t help but wonder how a seemingly intelligent person, if he is honest, can simply avoid examining the truth of the historicity of Christ. The Soviet Government simply asserted that the existence of Christ was a myth. Did Marx and Hegel assert the same thing?

Dimitry

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)

I’m not aware that Marx denied the existence of Christ. Hegel wrote a text (“Life of Jesus,” unpublished until after his death) where he humanizes Jesus, denying the reality of miracles and ignoring the Resurrection, but not denying his existence. His student Bruno Bauer was one of the first to deny the historical existence of Jesus.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the German Arthur Drews formalized the “Christ myth” theory. His theory was espoused by Lenin, who favored its being included in school and university textbooks.

Regards,

Thank you, Manuel. I was actually thinking of Marx and Engels, rather than Marx and Hegel. But you certainly know a lot more about these things than I do!

Dimitry

I just wanted to add that after Gorbachev permitted freedom of expression (glasnost) in the USSR in the 1980s, the Communist ideology crumbled like a house of cards. Now, the works of C.S. Lewis, previously banned in the USSR, are well known and popular in Russia.

Dimitry

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)