ABSTRACT
The majority of the members of the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor made their world comprehensible and expressed their experiences by using patterns and symbols retrieved from Christian doctrine and biblical mythology. "Humanism" and "socialism" have often been understood by champions of socialism as being practically synonymous. In the history of socialism, one finds plenty of prominent people as well as lines that were simultaneosly devoutly Christian while being devoted to socialism. The terms "socialism", "communism" or "anarchism" are nevertheless not used as self-designations in the sources have examined. Most socialists, especially those with Marxist convictions, have, not unexpectedly, resisted the idea that it may be appropriate to label socialism and/or communism as a "surrogate religion". The idea of happiness and restitution in the next life can, not least, work palliatively and serve to comfort. Those difficulties against which religion seems to provide protection can, however, be truly cured by socialism.
