Jan Hus and the communists

Another one for the film festival, the Stalin Prize film festival:

It’s called Война за веру: Магистр Ян Гус – ‘War for the Faith: Master Jan Hus’. Made in 1954, it was part of the Czech communist government’s reclaiming of Hus, the first reformer, as a revolutionary figure. (ht ll)

 

 

Two new posts: Political Theology and Philosophers for Change

Some more shameless self-promotion: a couple of pieces of mine have found their way onto other sites:

1. ‘Taking Notes 13: Roadblocks of the Old New Left’, is up at Philosophers for Change.

2. ‘From Political Economy to Imperial Monotheisms: On Transitions in the Sacred Economy’, is on the Political Theology blog.

 

Karl-Marx Stadt

The year 1980. Communism has taken over the world. Crowds in New York City are happily celebrating May 1. London is breaking the record in scrap metal collection.  South Africans are opening up yet another monument to the leaders of the proletariat. A young man whose heart is full of love is singing a song about the girl with whom he is in love. Together they travel  round the world to experience the utopian kingdom of universal equality.

The creators of the video clip dedicate their work to the unfulfilled dream of their fathers and grandfathers: the ‘bright future’ of communism.

Lyrics (Russian translation):

Heute hab ich dir gebracht
Schöne Blumen in der Nacht
Keine Röslein legt’ ich dir ins Bett
Weiße Pracht, zarter Strauß
Kam mit Maiglöckchen ins Haus
Auf dem Kissen lagen sie so nett.

Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt,
Du bist die Stadt roter Blumen,
Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt,
Aber ich mag nur weiß.

Keine Schrillheit in der Blüte
Steigt der Duft uns ins Gemüte
Bringt uns jetzt den Frülingszauber
Als ob ein weißes Lied erklingt
Als dein erster Hochzeitsring
Als ob deine erste Liebe, glaube ich.

Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt,
Du bist die Stadt roter Blumen,
Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt,
Aber ich mag nur weiß.

(ht sk)

 

Zyuganov and Religion (on the turn of the new year)

This one just snuck out as the new year was about turn (enjoying it in the village of Herrnhut, Saxony). It’s a piece with Monthly Review, assessing Gennady Zyuganov’s speech from 27 October and focusing on the issue of Marxism and religion.

 

A guide to being a communist calvinist

Some more shameless self-promotion: the irrepressible Tripp Fuller – of Homebrewed Christianity - and I did an interview in the quiet corner in Chicago back in November. He’s titled it ‘A guide to being a communist calvinist‘ – not bad, really. The title, I mean.

 

Without theory we are dead

Sergey sent me this great link to Zyuganov‘s speech on the auspicious day of 27 October this year. As everyone should know, Zyuganov is the chairman of the central committee of the Russian Communist Party. And the event was the 14th joint plenum  of that committee. The theme: the importance of and need to renew Marxist theory. He points out that Gorbachev took advantage of theoretical stagnation in Marxist thought and was thereby able to defeat the CPSU ideologically. It was the mark of a liberal-bourgeois revolution, from which it was a short step to the dismantling of the USSR. Perestroika is the signal of that ideological defeat. Of course, he calls for a deep re-engagement with the work of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, the latter of whom observed: ‘Without theory we are dead’.

But – and here it becomes really interesting – he has quite a bit to say about religion. He reasserts the old party platform of freedom of conscience in the party on matters of religion, the need for religious institutions and the party to operate in peaceful coexistence, indeed to attract people with religious belief to the party. And then he quotes Stalin to kick off a discussion concerning radical and revolutionary forms of religion, so much so that they share the goals of scientific socialism. Che Guavara turns up, as does Hugo Chavez, along with liberation theology. All of them oppose the Golden Calf of capital, whether socialist, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and so on.

And in outlining the measures needed for theoretical renewal that criticises the mistakes made and draws lessons from the achievements of the past – in terms of history, philosophy, science, religion and so on – he points out: ‘Soviet socialism is not only the past, but the future of Russia’.

I wonder if they need a resident theologian.

 

On ideology: how Germany has fallen

How Germany has fallen since the days of The German Ideology and the subsequent development of ideologiekritik. Now, one is ‘ideological’ only if one comes from the (former) East Germany. That means that you got on with your life and didn’t ‘dissent’, that you were in some way employed in the public service of that evil state, that you cooperated with the government, or – God forbid – that you were an enthusiastic supporter of the DDR. All of which means that you were and thereby still are tainted by communism, which is pretty much the same thing as working for the Stasi. But there’s nothing ideological in asserting that the DDR did nothing, lacked anything productive or industrious, produced no new thought, or that the whole population desperately wanted to flee, that the sky was always grey and the buildings brown, that the sun never shone, that towns in the east are still dead as a result and that no-one wants to live there. In short, from the end of the Second World War until 1989 it was a stagnant, grim backwater, until history returned in 1989. Nothing ideological at all.

 

Bad communism versus good capitalism?

Is it time to recover Georg Lukács’s observation?

A bad communism is always better than good capitalism.

 

Revolutionary erotica

And these are merely a taste, for more risqué ones may be found here. (ht sk)

 

How religion and state should relate

At our RiPL (Religion in Political Life) reading group today – organised by the incomparable Sean Durbin – we spent part of our time talking about religion, Confucianism and China. We were reminded that in China one cannot be a religious leader – bishop, pastor, reverend, imam, lama etc – in an officially recognised religion without being a member of the communist party.

So it should be throughout the world! All religious professionals should be required to hold a membership card of a communist party.

What would be the consequences if this became global law? For starters, it would swell the ranks of many communist parties doing it tough. Further, it would ensure that Marxism and the ABC of communism became crucial elements of the training for religious professionals. Finally, it would give me a shitload of further research on Marxism, religion and politics.

So maybe, just maybe China provides a glimpse of a promising future in relation to religion and politics.