Disciples of Christ & Marx

Some 20th century radical movements have been founded in the name of Karl Marx, others in the name of Christ. But not many try to espouse the ideals of both. One of the rare exceptions is England's New Left Catholics, a coterie of Cambridge-educated intellectuals who advocate a social revolution that is both Communist and Christian. Not content to condemn capitalism as a moral evil, they also denounce the British Labor Party as the tired-blood expression of a bourgeois working class. In their view, the church is equally obsolescent in structure and needs to be seriously reconstructed if it is to share in organizing the revolution.

Not too surprisingly, Roman Catholic leaders take a dim view of New Left thinking. Last month the Master General of the Dominican order, Father Ancieto Fernandez, dismissed the leading theologian of the New Left, the Rev. Herbert McCabe, 40, as editor of the zesty Catholic monthly New Blackfriars. What triggered the firing was an editorial by McCabe in the magazine's February issue commenting on the defection of Theologian Charles Davis (TIME, Dec. 30). His charges that the church was "racked by fear" and dominated by authority rather than truth, said McCabe, "seem to be very well founded; the church is quite plainly corrupt." But McCabe added that it was the duty of Catholics to remain in the church and attempt to reform it.

Revolution from Within. Other New Left thinkers share McCabe's conviction that revolution must be accomplished from within. Their ranks include some of the church's most articulate young thinkers. Neil Middleton, 35, is director of the Catholic publishing house, Sheed & Ward Ltd. Brian Wicker, 37, a lecturer in English literature at Birmingham University, writes for the Guardian. Terence Eagleton, 24, an editor of the New Left periodical Slant, is a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. All these writers found a platform for their views in New Blackfriars, and their writings are beginning to circulate in the U.S. This month the University of Notre Dame Press is publishing Wicker's Toward a Contemporary Christianity.

The basic thesis of the New Left is that the world is in the midst of profound cultural and political changes and that the church should make sure that whatever society emerges is Christian in tone and outlook. To a man, its adherents admit to being followers of Karl Marx--not, they explain, the turgid economist of Das Kapital, but the youthful, philosophical Marx who protested against man's alienation in a dehumanized industrial society.

Absolute Liberty. Stronger on polemics than on practical solutions, the New Left Catholics envision a socialistic society rooted in absolute liberty--which may be a contradiction in terms. Among their specific suggestions for reforming England are control of industry by the workers, abandonment of any nuclear deterrent. Within the church, they favor more democracy, including the election of bishops and more power for the laity in church affairs.

The movement has been harshly criticized by other intellectuals, both Catholic and secular. Douglas Woodruff, editor of England's leading Catholic weekly, The Tablet, has dubbed the New Left thinkers "the church's Red Guards" and dismissed their Christian Marxism as "nefarious nonsense." Cambridge's Raymond Williams, a radical, non-Christian socialist, notes a certain irony in the fact that the Catholic Left is espousing Marxism as an ideology precisely at a time when Communist governments in Eastern Europe are becoming more pragmatic. The Red Guards admit that they are open to criticism, but still insist that it is wiser for Catholics to move along with social change than to ignore it.

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