Communism and Christian Socialism [1951]

Wintle’s talk of Communist power-sharing in Eastern Europe was hardly timely given the intensified “Sovietization” of the satellite states since the Czech coup of February 1948. Communists profess a theological horror of the idea of God, which reminds one of the Old Testament abhorrence of Baal. The attitude of the Soviet Government towards the various heretical sects which abounded in Russia at the time of the Revolution, and which still exist, though with a great loss of vigour, is one of kindly contempt. Their doctrine inspired Plato's Republic, which is a work of the purest Communism. Through Plato, they influenced Christianity, and throughout the Middle Ages, religious communism constantly arose as part of opposition to existing governments. At the moment there is more political importance in the relations of Communism to Islam, which have an intimate bearing on the fate of Persian oil.