In the mid-1960's Christian and Marxist intellectuals held a series of meetings designed to explore their differences and their mutual hopes for humanity. Promoted by the decline in Stalinism and by the liberal spirit of Pope John XXIII, those first confreres were also moved by the dimly-perceived intuition that they were, in the words of Teilhard de Chardin, "travelling on the same road" and that they would "finish up by finding each other on the same mountain peak." Now, more than a decade later, some Christians in Italy and France are boldly advocating a "strategic alliance" with Communism. In Latin America groups of social revolutionaries claim that they are Marxists not in spite of their Christianity but because of it. In many parts of the world Christian thinkers are creating a "theology of liberation" which links the traditional concept of sin to unjust social and economic conditions. As they have moved from anathema to dialogue, today's Christians and Marxists are moving from dialogue to partnership. Peter Hebblethwaite, a British journalist and theologian, has been a participant as well as an observer of the Christian-Marxist dialogue. In this book he tells how the encounter reached its present status and where it might lead in the future.