Modern Marxism appeals in a variety of ways to people of different backgrounds in the world. To the Western intellectual it appeals as a rationalistic scientific system which claims to have the key to the understanding of society, and thus to be heir to modern Western civilisation. To them it also supplies the total Weltanschauung, the cause worth dying for, as many died in Spain, the comradeship of a party that provides a substitute for a living Church, and the knowledge that 'the stars in their courses are fighting' for the victory of Socialism, which together make up a live religion. To the frustrated intellectual of a colonial or semi-colonial people, who has browsed in Western culture, it offers release from the restraints of Western dominion, in the name of the best the West appears to offer. To the peasant in his poverty, newly aware of the possibility of awakening from the age-long burden of tradition and despair, it offers the possibility of a future created by man where not only a few are rich. To workers under capitalism, who are frustrated both by the contrast between their incomes and those of other members of society, and by the lack of status implied in the relationship of master and man in a free enterprise economy, it offers a present place in the struggle, and future status and reward. Even if much of the promise is in fact vain and empty, the appeal can only be met by those who believe they have in fact more to offer of more lasting worth.
(Denys L. Munby and D. M. MacKinnon, "Leninism and Stalinism," in Christian Faith and Communist Faith: A Series of Studies by Members of the Anglican Communion, ed. D. M. MacKinnon [London: Macmillan & Company, 1953], 21-57, at 56-7)
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 