SCIENCE, RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 



grain of wheat will produce ten thousand stalks, and each stalk ten 

 thousand ears, ..." and so forth.^ It has often been said that the 

 communism of the early christians was purely one of distribution, not 

 of production. Here, however, we have, as it were, a dream of the 

 abundance of natural wealth latent in the world's productive forces, 

 and to be unloosed by science so many centuries later.^ But the 

 inevitable answering note is struck. Asceticism comes to the aid of 

 the possessing classes, and w^hen we turn to Augustine we find: 

 "The opinion that the saints are to rise again would at least be tolerable 

 if it were understood that they would enjoy spiritual delights from 

 the presence of the Lord. We ourselves were formerly of this opinion. 

 But when they say that those who then arise will spend their time 

 in immoderate carnal feastings — in which the quantity of food and 

 drink exceeds the bounds not only of all moderation, but of all credi- 

 bility — such things cannot possibly be believed except by carnal 

 persons." 



Whatever happened in later centuries, then, it is certain that the 

 christians of the primitive church put their Kingdom on the earth 

 and in the future. To this belief of "crass simplicity" let us return. 

 We reach the paradox that Marx and Engels would have been more 

 acceptable to the martyrs and the Fathers than the comfortable 19th 

 century theologians contemporary with them, seeking to excuse and 

 support the phenomena of class oppression. For the kingdom of 

 Marx was not of this w^orld, but to be in this world. 



Yet Benda goes on: "I regard as being able to say 'my kingdom 

 is not of this world' all those whose activities do not pursue practical 

 ends, the artist, the metaphysician, the scientist in so far as he finds 

 satisfaction in the exercise of his science and not in its results. Many 

 will tell me that these are the true clerks, much more than the christian, 

 who only embraces the ideas of justice and love in order to win 

 salvation." Here he adopts, as I think, a quite unjustifiable separation 

 of these activities from practical affairs. In science, at any rate, the 

 closest relations exist between practical technology and pure research. 



^ Similar accounts occur in the Jewish Apocalypse ofBaruch and the Coptic Apocalypse 

 of James. 



^ "So when the Lord was telling the disciples about the future kingdom of the saints, 

 how glorious and wonderful it would be, Judas was struck by his words and said, 'Who 

 shall see these things ?' And the Lord said : 'These things shall they see who are worthy.' " 

 (Hippolytus, On Daniel, 4.) "Papias says that when Judas the traitor believed not and 

 asked, 'How then shall these growths be accomplished by the Lord?', the Lord said: 

 'They shall see who shall come thereto.' " (Irenaeus, Contra Haer, 5.) 



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