Lenin, Religion, and Theology [Paperback]

Based on a careful reading of Lenin's Collected Works, Roland Boer pursues the implications for linking Lenin with religion and theology and seeks to bring Lenin into recent debates over the intersections between theology and the Left, between the Bible and political thought.1. Introduction 2. Spiritual Booze and Freedom of Religion 3. Gospels and Parables 4. Christian Revolutionaries and God-Builders 5. Returning to Hegel: Revolution, Idealism and God 6. Miracles Can Happen 7. Venerating Lenin 8. Conclusion

In reading this book (which he surely would have done), Lenin himself might have been amused by Boer's own gift for the outrageously funny, and perhaps offended by an all-too-apt detection of the religious dimensions of his revolutionary perspectives. Modern-day readers will learn much about the Bolshevik 'god-builders' against whom Lenin so fiercely polemicized, and about the ironic twists through which latter-day Bolshevik 'god-builders' turned this secular revolutionary into a deity. Boer's genuine respect for the man and his thought intertwines in fascinating ways with an intimate knowledge of Christian rhetoric and theology, resulting in a fresh, provocative contribution to intellectual history, religious studies, and Marxist scholarship. - Paul Le Blanc, Professor of History, La Roche College, USA; Author, Lenin and the Revolutionary Party and Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience.

Roland T. Boer is Associate Professor, School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle