Christianity

The Da Vinci Code - chill out, eh?

This is my dissenting view on this article in the new issue of Solidarity - a damnation of The Da Vinci Code for promoting conspiracy theories.

The writer reckons the reason that so many people like The Da Vinci Code is because they believe (or want to believe) that it is true, and that this is a...

The Left's accommodation with Islam now and the 1960's Stalinist “dialogue between Marxism and Christianity”

INTRODUCTION, 2006, TO ARTICLE FROM WORKERS REPUBLIC, SUMMER 1967 Much of the ostensibly “revolutionary socialist” left has fallen on its knees before the forces of reactionary anti-Western political Islam, hailing it as a progressive “anti-imperialism”. The increasingly strange organisation that still, perhaps for old times’ sake, calls itself the Socialist Workers’ Party, welcomed the victory in Palestine of the Islamic fundamentalist party Hamas! It has aligned itself on the side of a world-wide reactionary-Islamist offensive against secularism, liberal civil rights, women’s liberation...

Argentina: fighting the Catholic ban on abortion

Andrea D’Atri, a professor at the Argentinian national university of La Plata, is active within the Argentinian women’s group Pan y Rosas (Bread and Roses). She spoke to AWL about her campaign. What is the current situation for women in Argentina? Until recently feminism in Argentina was relatively weak and very middle-class. After the economic crisis of 2001 and the social movements that emerged in response, feminist groups have politicised and radicalised. In particular, women have begun to mobilise around the issue of abortion rights. Abortion in Argentina is illegal under any circumstances...

The myths of Jesus

Gerry Bates reviews The Pauline Conspiracy by Peter Burton The history of Christianity is irretrievably myth-ridden. Little is known about Jesus as a historical figure. The early Christians had as little scruples as later Stalinists about inventing things they thought would serve their cause. Surmises, more or less plausible, can be made, but only surmises. Karl Kautsky and others surmised that the myth-cocooned biblical Jesus might in reality have been a Jewish nationalist rebel against the Romans. One aspect of the myth-making out of which early Christianity emerged was a savage demonisation...

The Death of Pope John Paul II: "Humankind Bogged Down in Its Own Excrement": (2005)

The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d; But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating to the breath Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. ...For the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night...

Debate and discussion: Christians and comrades

I sometimes think that Maria Exall and I are the only Christians who support AWL. The valid points made in the article (Solidarity 3/70) headed “Keep religion out of politics!” were undermined by the headline, which could have come from the Daily Mail. All religions are bound to be political, especially when they claim not to be — “non-political Christians” invariably turn out to be conservatives, and support the status quo. Churches are often attacked for not taking political issues seriously, and then attacked again when they do. The key issue is exactly how religion and politics connect...

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