ABSTRACT
This chapter revolves around the increasing emphasis on the “Christian” character of Etienne Cabet’s Icarian communism. Cabet polemically distanced himself from the Christianity of the established Churches, but also from rivaling socialist authors – namely Félicité Lamennais and Alphonse-Louis Constant. It will be demonstrated how Cabet launched public attacks to establish and defend his own Christian identity. This allows for a broader discussion of the relationship between communism and religion in the 1840s, and the role of communism for the formation of alternative religious identities.
