Rotstem, Abraham. “Lordship and Bondage in Luther and Marx.” Interpretation, Vol. 8 (1979), pp. 79-102.

Excerpt:

”

Nothing might seem more dubious than the attempt to bring together
the rabid foe of the peasants with the evangelist of the proletariat.1Their
doctrines lay more than three centuries apart, while their goals were liter
ally, worlds apart. The substantive differences between them would fill
volumes and we must take these for granted here.
Yet a modicum of detachment from the great struggles in which Luther
and Marx were engaged may offer glimmers of a different perspective. Both
were outstanding figures in the Western apocalyptic tradition, a tradition
that conceives of the world as bearing an overwhelming burden of domi
nation and oppression (however differently defined), and proceeds to offer
to the oppressed a vision of perfect community. Luther’s kingdom of God
whose presence on earth, Luther felt, could already be discerned prom
ised a regime with some surprising similarities to
Marx’s
socialism.”

Online:
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