Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Fredrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin

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What is the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Fredrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin? I am not trying to be “edgy” here nor am I trying to start a flame war. It’s a legitimate question and I cannot find many Catholic resources on this.
 
Communism and socialism are condemned by name in the Catechism, so Marx is out. Anyone that’s studied psychology knows that Freudian psychology has largely been discredited. Nietzsche said “God is dead”, so, that’s not good, and Darwin, whilst having some interesting theories, was a bit of a racist. I’m curious why you’re asking.
 
I am curious to find a specifically Catholic response to these four figures. Most videos and articles on them are either praising them (secular), or I get a “Christian” video, article, etc. that is skewed towards a protestant fundamentalist perspective.

That’s why I am looking for a Catholic response to these people.
 
I don’t know about the the Church but out of those I respect Darwin the most. He was a true scientist who developed his theories based on his observations. The others were more speculative all of whom were critical in one way or another of religion and Christianity.
 
Alright, well, everything I just told you. Do you get EWTN? There’s a show called Saints Vs. Scoundrels. If you can, watch the episode with Nietzsche and St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein).
 
No, but his racism is. (Keep in mind, I have no problem with evolution)
 
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He believed black people were a different species than white people. That’s not science.
 
The Church rarely ever takes a position on individual people- she prefers to respond to heretical teachings.
 
He did? I’m not aware of that. You might be able to find quotes out of context. But I always thought he was progressive for his time. Now plenty of racists used and distorted his theories.
 
Why would a Catholic response to Freud even need to exist when he’s been thoroughly discredited in his own field?
 
We should seperate these. The church has vigorously condemned Marxism, even up to the current Pope.

Are these links clickable

“”Pope Leo XIII wrote encyclical Rerum Novarum that socialism leads to envy, unjustified social strife, and acts against natural justice: “Neither justice nor the common good allows any individual to seize upon that which belongs to another, or, under the futile and shallow pretext of equality, to lay violent hands on other people’s possessions.” In his encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris Pope Leo XIII defined Communism as “the deadly plague that is creeping into the very fibers of human society and leading it on to the verge of destruction.”

Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Divini Redemptoris (in English, “On Atheistic Communism”) noticed that “Communism, moreover, strips man of his liberty, robs human personality of all its dignity, and removes all the moral restraints that check the eruptions of blind impulse.”

Also John Paul II, 100 years after Rerum Novarum , in his famous Centesimus Annus amplified Pope Leo XII’s criticism of socialism by noticing another crucial problem related to this ideology: “The fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socio-economic mechanism.”

Surprisingly for many, Pope Francis has joined the choir of Karl Marx’s critics. In his preface to a collection of writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on faith and politics, the current pontiff agrees that “the profound contrast [between Marxism and Christianity] is given by the abysmal difference that exists as to how redemption should happen.” Pope Francis repeats the question of Pope Benedict XVI, “Does redemption occur through liberation from all [material] dependence, or is the only way to liberation the complete dependence on love, which would then also be true freedom?” Pope Francis responded, “When we deny this dependence between creature and creator, this relationship of love, we renounce the true greatness of human beings, the bulwark of their freedom and dignity.””””
 
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adamhovey1988 said:
If you can, watch the episode with Nietzsche and St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein).
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Thanks for the recommendation. Edith stein was a fascinating person. I read her collection of essays about female psychology and spirtuality and it’s packed with stuff to ponder over.

Interesting fun fact re Nietzsche and another St Therese (of Lisieux). When St Therese and her father traveled to Rome to ask permission for her to enter the convent early, they wound up staying in the same hotel at the same time as Nietzsche. There’s no indication they ever interacted, and there would have been no reason for such an encounter, but it just goes to show you never know whose path you’ll cross in life.
 
CatholicKnight1 said:
What is the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Fredrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin?
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The RCC is “against” the teachings of each of these guys, but definitely most vehemently against the teachings of Marx, Marxism just being a special case of the utterly abhorrent idea that man (not God) will decide how life, society, and the world should be ordered. Of course Darwin’s teachings don’t fit with Catholicism (or any religion) either because he reduces man to the outcome of evolution-by-random-variation-and-natural-selection. Freud’s teachings don’t fit because he reduces man to the victim of his own subconscious (and slightly perverse) sexual urges. Nietzsche is the least problematic because he does acknowledge man as a “divine” creature, but he still can’t be reconciled with Catholicism (or again any religion) because he denounces morality and compassion as weaknesses that man must outgrow.
 
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CatholicKnight1 said:
What is the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Fredrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin? I am not trying to be “edgy” here nor am I trying to start a flame war. It’s a legitimate question and I cannot find many Catholic resources on this.
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I remember watching a video by Ken Kline about end times. He also referred to an organisation , then called ’ The East India Co.’ which contained most, if not all of these men and a few more movers and shakers of the day ( possibly Engels, one of the Huxleys and some others ) they were a sort of think tank discussing and planning how
society should move on in the future , probably the best way to engineer their dream of a future one-world Godless humanity
 
Roguish said:
Of course Darwin’s teachings don’t fit with Catholicism (or any religion) either because he reduces man to the outcome of evolution-by-random-variation-and-natural-selection.
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I don’t think he reduces humans to that. He was a scientist devopling theories based on what he observed in nature. The Church has reconciled it’s teachings with evolution.
Roguish said:
Nietzsche is the least problematic because he does acknowledge man as a “divine” creature, but he still can’t be reconciled with Catholicism (or again any religion) because he denounces morality and compassion as weaknesses that man must outgrow.
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I’d say he is more problematic than Darwin. He saw Christianity as a slave morality of resentment of the powerful by the weak. His ideal in the past was the pagan Roman empire which glorified strength, virility, power, and domination. His ideal for the future was superior overmen or supermen who would transcend and create their own morality.
 
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