Supplemental material

I’ve included the full article as well as a short video from Marxist economist Richard Wolff on the line about religion being the opium of the people. I have also included the link to a book that covers all of Marx’s writing on religion.

reflection

While Marx is best known as one of the most important political economists in history, it is worth bearing in mind that he was an important philosopher whose theory arose out of his careful study of Hegel. As a result of this, Marx’s critique of religion is more subtle and sophisticated than it is often given credit for. In today’s reflection we encounter three fascinating positions that I explored this weeks seminar. Firstly, that religion reflects the ideological position of the current age. Secondly, that it provides consolation for those alienated and oppressed by the current economic reality. Thirdly, that it tends to justify the present age rather than offer a critique of it.

For Marx, the political world is full of theological ideas and so religious critique is vital, not as an end in itself, but as the first step towards applying the same critiques to the secular world.

Just as Feuerbach helped us to see that God is a reflection of ourselves, so Marx argued that we must do the same with those in power. In other words, we must see through their claim that they reflect some ahistorical truth about reality, and realize that they simply reflect the current ideological system. A system that generates contradictions, and that must eventually give way to something better.

Religion as Painkiller

Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) was a philosopher and political theorist who stands as one of the most influential and controversal thinkers in history. Marx's theories about society, economics and politics hold that human societies develop through a dialectic class struggle. Employing a critical approach known as historical materialism, Marx propounded the theory of base and superstructure, asserting that the cultural and political conditions of society, as well as its notions of human nature, are largely determined by economic foundations. These economic critiques were set out in influential works such as the three volumes, published between 1867 and 1894, that comprise Das Kapital.

In the following excerpt we encounter Marx's famous writing on religion as a painkiller that dulls action rather than promoting it.