Faithful Without God: Marxism, Christianity, and Getting Free

What does it mean to live by Christian ethics without God at the center? What happens when Marxist theory meets the bars of Rikers Island, the wards of outpatient psychiatric care, and the walls of San Quentin? In this episode of Excavations, Connie sits down with Chris Alfonso (Jean-Paul Fartre), a Marxist scholar, organizer, and abolitionist, to trace the surprising theological architecture inside radical thought.They explore the structural parallels between Hegel's dialectic and Christian eschatology, why Jesus might be history's most compelling militant communist, the difference between Marxism as critique and Marxism as state religion, and how theory fails the moment it stops meeting people where they are. This episode is for anyone who has ever felt the gap between what institutions profess and what they practice. And for anyone trying to keep the faith, in whatever language that takes.Topics include: liberation theology, abolition, Marxist philosophy, Hegel, Paulo Freire, CLR James, prison organizing, sacred encounter, agnosticism, dialectical materialism, embodied pedagogy, No Brooklyn Jails.Support the show