Engels is the author of three articles devoted to the origins of Christianity. In 1882 the magazine Per Sozialdemokrat carried his "Bruno Bauer and Early Christianity," conceived of as an evaluation of Bauer's contribution to the treatment of this complex problem. The following year, in the English journal Progress, Engels published an article titled "The Book of Revelation," a characterization of Christianity as it appears according to the Apocalypse of St. John. Finally, in 1894-1895, shortly before his death, Engels published (...) in Die Neue Zeit a studied titled "A Contribution to the History of Early Christianity.". (shrink)

Appreciations of the work of Soviet historians oscillate between two opposite poles. According to official Soviet theory, Soviet scholarship is the only genuine historical science, based on the only scientific philosophy of history and therefore providing both reliable tools of investigation and an objective picture of events. According to the prevailing Western opinion, Soviet historiography is a distorting mirror, a “policy applied to the past,” aimed at the justification of the socialist system and the contemporary Russian empire. As usual, the (...) truth is to be found between two extremes; both definitions are simplistic, originating on the one hand in militant and obscurantist selfconceit and on the other in simple ignorance. It is unbelievable how little Soviet medieval studies are known in the West, and yet they are courageously debunked at every turn. “Discours stéréotypé, blocage de la recherche …, manipulation scolastique et artificielle des concepts” — such are, if we follow Guy Bois, the features typical of Soviet historical scholarship. But if we ask whence our French colleague formed this lamentable impression, the answer will stun us by its naïveté: “Quiconque rencontre aujourd'hui une délégation officielle d'historiens soviétiques peut en faire la cruelle constation.” And he quotes as a unique example of reputable work the rather mediocre History of the Middle Ages by N. Abramson, A. Gurevič, and N. Kolesnickij, which has nothing in common with the greatest achievements of Soviet medieval studies. jQuery.click { event.preventDefault(); }). (shrink)