Review: Marx & Satan

Marx & Satan
Richard Wurmbrand

This book starts off strong, with a very interesting premise. The general idea is to consider evidence that Karl Marx really wasn’t an atheist, but rather a Satanist—two completely different animals. The volume starts off strong, with some rather interesting quotes from the various works of Marx, and points out that most of what Marx actually wrote hasn’t ever been published. There are, apparently, about 80 volumes of Marx’s writings that have never been published, ostensibly because WWII prevented Russia from printing them. That WWII is far in the past doesn’t seem to have had much impact in their status.

After the first few chapters, the book wanders about a bit. The material is rather disorganized, and some of it is repeated in making the same point in a different way. There is an interesting appendix at the very end discussing called Can Communism be Christian? While the strongest arguments I can think of are not presented, the material is worth reading.

Probably the most interesting points in the book are quotes from Marx and his friends. While it’s always possible for someone to change their views—Marx was a Christian before proclaiming himself an atheist—the odds seem very high that Marx really was, and remained, a Satanist throughout his life, just based on his own writings.

With Disdain I will throw my gauntlet
Full in the face of the world,
And see the collapse of this pygmy giant
Who’s fall will not stifle my ardour.
Then I will wander godlike and victorious
Through the ruins of the world
And, giving my words an active force,
I will feel equal to the creator.

Karl Marx

Great poetry it’s not. But it is a revealing bit of writing by the founder of Communism.