Avakian’s “Away with All Gods!”
By Pavel Andreyev
Pavel Andreyev is an historian and specialist on religion with a long acquaintance with the Revolutionary Communist Party and other Maoist organizations.
EXCERPT
It would be wrong to suppose that “Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World” (Chicago, Insight Press, 2008 ) is just a book.
It’s in fact a campaign by some highly motivated people to promote atheism, and a certain critique of religion (including “Christian Fascism”) in American life.
Authored by the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, it has been advertised for months with great fanfare…
Even the most significant and original contributions to religious studies are seldom publicized with this sort of (dare I say religious?) excitement. Party expectations are obviously high….
Committed to atheism and historical materialism, I myself am in principle totally sympathetic to the project. If I thought it was done well and effectively I would applaud it.