Marxism and Spirituality: An International Anthology

(Hardback)

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This perspective represents a step in the exploration of a long-ignored dimension of Marxist thought. Contributors, both Marxist and non-Marxist, from various countries, reflect on such concerns as: the spiritual implications of Marxism and its critiques of economic determinism, alienation, and religion; what Marxism has to say to the more urgent spiritual issues of our time; and the legacy of Marxism in a post-Soviet world. Spirituality here refers less to religion than to questions of moral and aesthetic value; issues of freedom, creativity, transcendence and community; and the meaning of life and of the struggle to create a better world. This book begins with a brief section from Trotsky and Che Guevara, and Vivian Gornick's work on American Communism, and with overviews of questions of spirituality in pre- and early Soviet Russian thought and in Western Marxism. It then presents the views of several contemporary Marxists, and concludes with contributions on spiritual issues in Marxism's dialogues with Christianity in both East Europe and Latin America, and with Buddhism.

Author Bio

Benjamin B. Page is professor of philosophy at Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Connecticut. In the early 1960s he taught with the Episcopal Church in Haiti and following graduation from college was active in the peace, civil rights, and labor movements in the Boston area. From 1965-67 he studied in Prague in the context of Czechoslovakia's Christian-Marxist dialogue, and later earned a PhD in philosophy and an MS in Urban and Regional Health Planning from Florida State University. In addition to a monograph on Czechoslovakia's attempt in the 1960s to reform socialism, he has published articles in several Czech and U.S. journals.