"Ernst Bloch on Thomas Müntzer": Peter Thompson interviewed by Spiked Review on Ernst Bloch, the Marxist atheist who took religion seriously as the bearer of utopia

As many readers of this blog will know I've been considerably influenced by Marxist atheist philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885-1977)—indeed I recently gave a sermon at evensong in the chapel of Emmanuel College, Cambridge on the subject of Set My People Free!—Ernst Bloch, Hope and the Bible. Reading his book Atheism in Christianity was one of those "game-changing" moments for me and Peter Thompson's introduction to the most recent edition (published by Verso Books in 2009) remains a fine introduction to both Bloch's work and his continuing politico-theological relevance. I have occasionally corresponded with Peter Thompson, not only about the aforementioned book but about Bloch's Thomas Müntzer as the Theologian of Revolution (1924) and have discovered that someone, somewhere is, thankfully, working on an English translation for publication. I live in hope (Blochian pun intended) which meant that today because I was thinking again about one of Bloch's ideas I did a quick internet search for the Müntzer book and stumbled across this splendid and informative interview of Peter Thompson in Spiked Review. I realize this interview and its subject matter won't be everyone's cup of tea but it is mine so, below, if you are interested, is a link to the interview.

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