Editing Christian mythology (section)

===Political and philosophical ideas===
According to Mircea Eliade, the medieval "Gioacchinian myth […] of universal renovation in a more or less imminent future" has influenced a number of modern theories of history, such as those of Lessing (who explicitly compares his views to those of medieval "enthusiasts"), [[Fichte]], [[Hegel]], and [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]]; and has also influenced a number of Russian writers.<ref name="eliade84-85"/>

Calling [[Marxism]] "a truly messianic Judaeo-Christian ideology", Eliade writes that Marxism "takes up and carries on one of the great eschatological myths of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean world, namely: the redemptive part to be played by the Just (the 'elect', the 'anointed', the 'innocent', the 'missioners', in our own days the [[proletariat]]), whose sufferings are invoked to change the ontological status of the world".<ref>Eliade, ''Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries'', in Ellwood 91–92</ref>

In his article "The Christian Mythology of Socialism", [[Will Herberg]] argues that socialism inherits the structure of its ideology from the influence of Christian mythology upon western thought.<ref>Herberg 131</ref>

In ''The Oxford Companion to World Mythology'', David Leeming claims that Judeo-Christian messianic ideas have influenced 20th-century totalitarian systems, citing the [[state ideology of the Soviet Union]] as an example.<ref>Leeming, "Religion and myth"</ref>

According to Hugh S. Pyper, the biblical "founding myths of the Exodus and the exile, read as stories in which a nation is forged by maintaining its ideological and racial purity in the face of an oppressive great power", entered "the rhetoric of nationalism throughout European history", especially in Protestant countries and smaller nations.<ref>Pyper 333</ref>