Many Christians today absolutely hate Karl Marx and his ideas — there are few, if any, historical figures who have become the objects of so much vitriol. Marx's connections to modern communism make this understandable, but if more Christians were to actually read his writings they might find some familiar themes.
Will Kiblinger writes:
[Marx's] analysis of exploitation, despite its appearance, is not so much about economic relations and the conditions of injustice in the marketplace. Those concerns are merely the clothing of deeper worries about the self-alienated condition of modern life. When he claims that the bourgeoisie "has left no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest," this sense of "exploitation" runs much deeper than any argument about the efficiency of economic relations. It is about the spiritual health of human beings.
Thus, Marx can claim that the proletariat, i.e., the everyman, "represents the complete loss of man and can only regain itself, therefore, by the complete resurrection of man." This resurrection takes place in and through the overcoming of self-alienation, which occurs finally when the "utterly alien power" and "inhuman force" of greed no longer holds sway over the whole of human existence. Of course, this will not happen easily because the problem runs deep.
How exactly the overcoming of greed is to occur is unclear. On that point, Marx seems to reach for a resource that is not available to him--some sort of grace that he cannot envision. Yet he seems sure that it will be present and pervasive in the ethical community that arises in the aftermath of the current age--the age governed by the dispossessing power of greed. Whether or not Marx merits much attention as a moral philosopher or economist, his work clearly draws on the prophetic tradition by offering both a critique of the current age and a vision of the ideal community for which we should strive. This aspect of his thought deserves recognition and respect.
Of course, the similarity of Marx's ideas to traditional Christian soteriology is in fact one reason why Christians would dislike Marx. His philosophy represents a competitor that mimics, even mocks, Christian doctrine. Still, as Kiblinger notes, Marx's critiques of modern society coupled with his ideals for a future society are not contrary to any of the ideas attributed to Jesus and, because of that, should warrant a bit more respect.
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