Christianity In Post Communist Europe Essay

Submitted By brandofit
Words: 2706
Pages: 11
Open Document
On June 12, 1987, Ronald Regan made one of the most renowned speeches from the Brandenburg Gate; this speech would forever change the world. The most powerful man in America heroically said to Mikhail Gorbachev, “Tear down this wall!” The Berlin Wall represented more than a concrete wall, it was an emblem of communist oppression throughout the Soviet Union. This essay will explain how a spiritual wall crumbled when communism collapsed; communism hindered the growth of Christianity. The ideology of communism would rival religion within Eastern Europe and encumber the growth of religion for the next six decades. Within communism we see the rise of Scientific Atheism, a monopolized government funded religion, which would prevent all religions within the Soviet Union to propagate. Communism became the greatest antagonist that religion would ever face in Eastern Europe, but communism is a man-made economic-political theory, that would be no match for the deeply rooted religions within Europe. After the fall of communism in 1991, Christianity began to grow at a rapid rate; there was an immense revival that occurred within the post communist states.
Before we discuss how Atheism hindered the growth of Christianity, we must first understand communism. Communism derived from two German political philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In 1848, they published a book called the “Communist Manifesto”. The Communist Manifesto consisted of twelve thousand influential words that would forever change the world (Braman); from this book, we would see an empire emerge, becoming more powerful than the empire of the Khans (McConville, 542). Marx and Engels believed in a classless society, they believed that everyone within society should have equal social status; that the aristocrats would be on the same level as the middle class. Communism despised the ways of the Western world, which was capitalism. They believed in full governmental control of private property and businesses, believing this would achieve happiness within society. Marx alleged that people only believe in religion because of their economic status, he saw religion as “the opiate of the masses”; he believed in the liberation of mankind (Braman). A man named Vladimir Lenin took particular liking to Marx and Engels ideology; he would take Marxism and create a more aggressive violent version, Marxism-Leninism. The foundations of Marxism-Leninism were tremendously atheistic and anti religious (King, 324), to Lenin this was more than just an economic-political theory, it was a Weltanschauung (world view), which would help us explain the answers to the universe. The Communist Party believed that religion would disappear under the rule of communism. This would become a difficult task considering there were over fifty million believers of God within the Soviet Union (Anderson, 169); within that fifty million, there were thirty million strong Pentecostal Christians and Jehovah Witnesses (Anderson, 170). This loathing towards religion would stand steadfastly until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, in 1962 the Communist Party at its XXII Congress proposed to eliminate religion (Anderson, 170). Even up until 1984, this belief was still strong, Soviet Premier Konstantin Cherenkov said, “protect the ideological purity of young people against the pernicious taint of religion” (Heywood).
The first way communism began to hinder Christianity was by attempting to supersede God. Although communism was profoundly anti-religious and atheistic, we start to perceive connections between communism and Christianity. In fact, Karl Marx, the founder of the Communist Manifesto had parents who were Jews that converted to Christianity (Thompson, 51). Communism overtime evolved into Leninism, many claim that communism was the religion of Karl Marx, Marxism was the religion of Lenin, and Leninism was the religion of the Communist Party (Thompson, 52). The reason that Lenin resented religion was
Show More

Related Documents: Christianity In Post Communist Europe Essay

Polska: Poland and Poland I / ˈpoʊlənd / Essay

Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, and Lithuania to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi),[6] making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38.5 million people,[6] which makes…

Words 1172 - Pages 5

Essay about Chapter 30 Ap Euro Outline

Soviet communists’ forced removal of the Russian peasants and the Nazi’s deportations and execution of European Jews were only the most dramatic examples of this development. Many moved from the countryside to the cities. Other vast forced movements due to the government caused millions of Germans Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Finns, Chechens, Armenians, Greeks, Turks, Balts, and Bosnian Muslims to be displaced. This forced displacement transformed parts of Europe. Displacement…

Words 2878 - Pages 12

How Did Billy Graham Influence The New York Crusade

BILLY GRAHAM 12 meeting in New York, the crusade was held in Yankee Stadium. One hundred thousand people filled the stadium, which was a record crowd there. Graham decided to hold one final meeting before he left-in Times Square. Some 120,000 people filled Times Square that day to listen to Graham preach. By the time the New York crusade was over, more than 2.3 million people had heard Graham speak. He graciously welcomed 60,000 “spiritual babies,” people who came forward to give…

Words 813 - Pages 4

Essay on Journal 2

Even though Christianity is the most popular religion in the world, it still has to face with many forms of exclusion as the dominator will always be challenge by the weaker ones. Among different religious beliefs, Christianity has the most conflicts with Islam since they grew from the same root but branched out and become two different kinds that hardly have any major principles in common. On the other hand, atheist population all over the world is increasing quickly by recent year also brings…

Words 1080 - Pages 5

European Imperialism In Europe During The Early 1900's

Due to the Agricultural Revolution, people’s roles in society changed in Europe during the early 1900’s. Farmers became commercial farmers due to higher yielding crops, bigger animals, and machine innovations, in England. The great outputs of products led to the country becoming more independent in producing needed resources, and having a more diversified economic outputs. These outputs also led to an influx of people becoming unemployed and in conjunction with the creation of new technology, Great…

Words 1590 - Pages 7

Cold War Research Paper

agricultural place) WW1 Famines and starving by 1917 Imperial govt. overthrown by vaguely democratic power  war in this area stopped Small group of Communists  Bolsheviks Vladimir Lenin (1917-24) Marxist Revolutionary Overthrow of the government, to make a peace with Germany Marxism-Leninism Lenin believed in accelerating history  Communists could act as the “Vangaurd of the proletariat” and agents of liberation 1917 Bolshevik Revolution - put in place a dictatorship of the proletariat, a…

Words 7524 - Pages 31

Marxism and Communism Christian Communism Essay

Introduction Communism is a social structure in which classes are abolished and property is commonly controlled, as well as a political philosophy and social movement that advocates and aims to create such a society.Karl Marx, the father of communist thought, posited that communism would be the final stage in society, which would be achieved through a proletarian revolution and only possible after a socialist stage develops the productive forces, leading to a superabundance of goods and services…

Words 4976 - Pages 20

Global History from the 15th Century Essay

through fear. Disease, mainly smallpox and other diseases ravaged native societies from Mexico to the eastern woodlands of North America. The Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese established cities throughout their territories. Like their compatriots in Europe, colonist preferred to live in cities even when they derived income from agricultural production of their landed estates, and they made every attempt to model their new cities along European lines. Portuguese colonist relied heavily on African slaves…

Words 2497 - Pages 10

Essay on CrossesBook Exerpt My1

september 2011 |  When the Crosses are Gone threatened by it had to destroy it. It has always been this way. Exchanging Crosses for Red Stars In November 1917, Vladimir Lenin and the Communists seized power in Russia during the bloody Bolshevik Revolution. There was no room for God under the new regime. The Communists invaded churches and carted away sacred the cross, and replaced it with the red star of the new Soviet state. Throughout the formerly Christian realm of Mother Russia, all the crosses…

Words 6088 - Pages 25

Essay on History notes

History 1302 Notes-9/4/13 Primary Sources-eyewitness account, documents written during the time period. (Diaries, interviews) PAPER: Place and time/Author, Argument, Audience/Purpose/Evaluate/Relate. Secondary Source-analyzes, interprets the event, after the account. (Textbook. Journals) STAMP: Structure/Thesis/Author, Argument, Audience/Motives/Primary Sources. ***Chapter Titles, Topic Sentence 1. Reconstruction, 1865-1877 Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse. Lincoln…

Words 5410 - Pages 22