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Garaudy believes that the church's efforts at reforming itself require Marxism to likewise rethink its approach to religion. The most promising point of departure for dialogue, he believes, is the reality that both ideologies share a common humanistic concern for the majesty and value of mankind. "What gives meaning, beauty and value to life," says Garaudy, "is, for Marxists as for Christians, to give oneself without any limit to what the world, through our sacrifice, can become." Marxism must incorporate "the heritage of human values developed by Christianity over 2,000 years," notably its message of love and hope, just as Christianity absorbed the best elements of the pagan world it succeeded.
Idealist Origin. Garaudy's plea for dialogue has met with warm response from Christian experts on atheism in Europe, many of whom agree with his thesis that Marx was not necessarily antireligious. One of Italy's leading Catholic experts on Communism, Father Giulio Girardi, maintains that "atheism does not belong to the fundamental thesis of Marxism," but is only an optional derivative of a philosophy that, he says, is essentially humanist in intent, idealist in outlook.
Theoretical discussion of Marxism as a humanist philosophy does not change the fact that Communism in practice is not nearly as humane as Garaudy's ideology is on paper. Even Garaudy can not ignore the reality that Christian churches are still persecuted under Red rule. Somewhat inadequately, he explains this persecution away as "residual Stalinism," and a legitimate fear of counterrevolution. Nonetheless, if so astute a theoretician as Garaudy is willing to admit Marxism's errors and its imperative need for radical updating, Christianity and Communism may have far more to talk about than either belief would have admitted a decade ago.