To the extent that Marxism seeks the “emancipation of humankind from its alienated powers in the form of market forces,” Collier sees an ally in Christianity. Both doctrines have sought to limit the ability to “buy and sell everything” (“Jesus overthrew the moneychangers in the Temple, and Peter’s curse on Simon Magus ought to put many an American evangelist in fear of hell fire”).

They can also serve as allies in the philosophical realm, standing athwart both liberalism and postmodernism, and against the “atomism” and “fragmentation” promoted by market logic. Both Marxism and Christianity can explain and counter “the fragmentation, not only of society, but of the human person under capitalism.”

Collier’s attempts to reconcile Marxism and Christianity underscore not just the political possibilities of an alliance but the persistent gulf between the two. A meeting of the hammer and the cross — it may not be a far-fetched Christmas miracle, but rather a political necessity in the age of Trump.