Communism and Man

By F. J. Sheed

Communism and capitalism each has its share of evils. Yet the evils of the one are not evidence for virtues of the other; they are evidence against man himself. Since these evils are certain “to show themselves in any new system made by men,” F. J. Sheed tasks himself with an examination of Communism, in light of what it presumes and propounds to be true about human nature and then in contrast with what the Catholic Church holds and teaches to be true about the same. Beginning at the ideology’s sources, Sheed presents Hegel’s dialectic and Marx’s development of it into the materialistic system of theory and practice and sweeping vision of power and revolution that is Communism, moves to a consideration of man as a social and political animal made in God’s own likeness, and then surveys the earthly lot and heavenly destiny of this creature with an eye to his insufficiency in the Catholic view, his imperative to “change” the world in the Marxist view, and his grasp of the implications of universal brotherhood as articulated by both.

Originally published in 1938 and praised by Archbishop Fulton Sheen as “the most solid and yet popular refutation of Communism that has been done in English,” Communism and Man offers an engaging analysis of Communism, one which—frankly and honestly construed—remains sadly, soberingly relevant.

We do not understand any doctrine till we understand what its attraction is for its supporters.… Until we see why men are Communists, or Catholics, we do not understand Communism, or Catholicism. (F. J. Sheed)

F. J. Sheed (1897–1981) was a writer, publisher, and speaker, widely recognized as one of the most important Christian intellectuals of the twentieth century. With his wife, Maisie Ward, he founded the publishing house of Sheed & Ward, which revived the Catholic literary movement and promoted innumerable intellectual, literary, and art­istic treasures of the Catholic Church.

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Paperback: 236pp.

ISBN: 978-1685953393