Stanislav Sousedík
SUMMARY
The article contains a synthetically conceived outline of the life and work of the German Marxist-oriented thinker Ernst Bloch. In this framework, the author attempts to establish in what respects Bloch’s conception of Marxism differs from Soviet-type Marxism. The difference is found to consist in Bloch’s emphasis on structural similarity between Christian and Marxist eschatology. For Bloch, this is the starting point for a more favorable assessment of the role of religion in general, and Christianity in particular (especially in its evolutionary-chiliastic forms) in history and in the present. The article also contains a chapter on the response of Bloch’s thinking in Czech Marxism and a brief concluding reflection on the criticism of Bloch’s work formulated by Hans Jonas.