Marx and Engels didn’t develop their ideas in a vacuum. They built on centuries of philosophical development, including the revolutionary ideas of the English materialists. Georgina Ryan explores how thinkers like Francis Bacon, Thomas HobbesGeorgina Ryan explores how thinkers like Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke challenged religious explanations of the world and helped lay the foundations for modern science and, ultimately, Marxism.

Starting as a theological debate, the Reformation became an ideological struggle against the Catholic Church, and from there a series of revolutions, wars, and civil wars. In this episode, Joe Russell will use this period of revolution as an important case study for historical materialism.

What is Christianity, and where did it come from? Alan Woods, theoretical leader of the RCI, discusses the origins of Christianity, from its early radical start, through to the bureaucratisation of the Church, and how the faith was used to colonise the world.