In this talk I explore the materialist critique of mystical thought by showing how it concentrates on decoding the type of "anthropomorphic" material that many mystics attempt to leave behind. We look at how the thinkers who make up this week have similarities in relation to the importance of the historical makeup of Christianity as well as important idea regarding the genesis of religion, the function of religion and the end of religion.

Ludwig Feuerbach (1804 – 1872) was best known for his book The Essence of Christianity, which provided powerful a critique of Christianity which strongly influenced generations of later thinkers, including both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

His philosophical writings had a deep understanding and appreciation of theology. Indeed he saw himself as a friend of theology who was merely helping to reveal the materialist truth of its message. His thought was influential in the development of historical materialism. He is often recognized as a bridge between Hegel and Marx.

The following excerpts touch on his most important and lasting contribution to the critique of religion: the idea of God as a projection of the human essence.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

Feuerbach is vitally important in understanding the genesis of the materialist critique of religion. As I explored in this weeks seminar, he applies Hegel’s description of the development of self-consciousness to the understanding of our relationship to God. For humanity to come to know and embody its essence, it must first project that essence onto an external screen (God), hone that projection, then directly identify with that projection.

Feuerbach can be seen as the first person to offer a systematic and detailed account of the purpose of religion that didn’t require a supernatural explanation. An account that took seriously the lived reality, scriptures and practices of religious people. While people like Max Stirner and Marx are largely seen as correctly critiquing an important element of Feuerbach’s Humanist approach (the ahistorical element in which God is seen as a projection of human essence, rather than a projection of the current Mode of Production), his perspective was vital for the development of Marx’s view.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Feuerbach is one of my favorite of the minor philosophers. His work is engaging, insightful and relatively easy to read. He is also a key bridge in understanding modern philosophy and theology. I’ve included here a longer excerpt on religion as projection, as well as a good introductory article by Van Harvey.

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.

SUPPLEMENTAL 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.

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.

Joe Hill (1879 – 1915) was a labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World. An immigrant worker frequently facing unemployment and underemployment, became a popular songwriter and cartoonist for the union.

Hill was convicted of murder in a controversial trial. Following an unsuccessful appeal, political debates, and international calls for clemency from high-profile figures, Hill was executed in November 1915.

One of his most famous songs is "The Preacher and the Slave" a parody of Joseph Webster’s hymn “The Sweet By and By”. Hill composed his response because migrant workers would often be greeted by the Salvation Army singing “The Sweet By and By” as they returned to the city each evening after having worked all day in dire conditions. The original hymn told them that life would begin after death. For Hill, life was possible before death, but only as we put our shoulder to the plow of historical struggle and fight for equality here and now.

It was proving difficult to find a good cover version of the song, so my friend Heatherlynn came over to my house and recorded a version especially for AfL.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

I picked Joe Hill’s musical parody because of the way that it captures three central themes discussed by Marx in yesterday’s reflection. Firstly, the song reveals heaven is an idealized reflection of earthly economic conditions. Secondly, it pokes fun at the type of consolation offered by confessional religion. Thirdly, it powerfully expresses how confessional religion is a conserving force that protects the status quo, rather than challenging it.

After a couple of more taxing reflections, I think that this little musical number offers a complimentary way of understanding the move from Feuerbach to Marx.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

I have included chapter seven of my book Insurrection, as I talk about this song under the subtitle Pie in the Sky When You Die. I’ve also included a link to the book itself.

Emma Goldman (1869 – 1940) was an anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues. She was also part of a plan to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick as an act of ‘propaganda of the deed’. Goldman was imprisoned several times for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth.

Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues. The following are extensive excerpts from an article she wrote on atheism.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

The power of Goldman’s essay stems from its palpable sense of passion, raw intensity and unabashed affirmation of human dignity. The work is less of an academic reflection than a secular sermon forcefully delivered in the name of the justice.

Her clear and cutting prose feels Nietzschean, while her passion for the poor and oppressed brings to mind figures like Joe Hill and Simone Weil.

I’ve included this piece because it’s almost impossible to read her carefully without feeling the reverberation of her critique in your bones.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING

I’ve included a link to the full article that the excerpts are taken from (in ebook format). I’ve also included a link to the book Anarchism and Other Essays, where the article is published.

Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud remains as one of the giants of 20th century intellectual life, and continues to extend a huge influence in both therapeutic and academic domains. 

In The Future of an Illusion, Freud explores religious belief as an illusion (rather than error),  transmitted via tradition, upheld because of arguments handed down from antiquity, and protected due to prohibitions against questioning. Religious beliefs are of interest to Freud because of the way that they act as a type of wish fulfillment concerning the, "oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind."

The following is a small excerpt from this book. 

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

Freud is undoubtably one of the most important intellectual figures of the 20th century, giving birth to the discipline of psychoanalysis. A discipline that not only transformed our understanding of the self, but which continues to have a profound influence on other multiple disciples, not least that of Continental Philosophy.

The philosopher Paul Ricœur coined the term ‘masters of suspicion’ to describe a small number of great thinkers from the 19th and 20th century who where experts in drawing out unconscious motives for human behavior. Freud - along with Marx and Nietzsche - is considered one of the most penetrating of these masters. He systematically reflected on the nature of the unconscious, and uncovered the ingenious ways that it erupts in our lives - through delusions, neurotic symptoms, dreams, slips of the tongue and religious practices.

Some philosophers, such as Merold Westphal, have maintained that Freud’s work can actually redeem the religious notion of God by freeing it from superstition. However, it is hard to avoid the feeling that Freud’s work effectively deals a death blow to the religious notion of God in its entirety. A death blow that might help open up the way to a religionless notion of God. Which is the subject of next week.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING

I have also included a short reflection Freud gave on the subject of Religious experience. I have also included a link to the book Future of an Illusion and a great book that has various writings from Freud and Freudians on the subject of religion.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) is one of the greatest 19th century thinkers. He was also an important cultural critic, poet, philologist, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and intellectual history. At 44 he suffered a collapse and a complete loss of his mental faculties.

A few years ago I was asked to tell the parable on camera by the photographer Gavin Millar. I have included this vide for today’s reflection.

SUPPLEMENTAL REFLECTION

Nietzsche is a towering figure in the history of philosophy. A truly searing thinker, writer and iconoclast who has often been seen as one of the world’s most passionate critics of Christianity.

Yet Nietzsche was a deeply pious youth and later wrote that one day he would be made into a saint. Indeed, after he had succumbed to madness, he would often sign his name as The Crucified One.

When reading Nietzsche it is all but impossible to avoid the sense that one is encountering a singular preacher and prophet, one who is making straight the path to a new experience of the world.

It has perhaps only been in the last fifty years that Nietzsche is finally being seen as a theological figure in the deepest sense. Nowhere is this more clear than in his reflections on what is called The Death of God.

While the Apostle Paul was the first to assert The Death of God as a world-historical rupture with universal, emancipatory significance, it was Friedrich Nietzsche who most famously revived this insight for the modern world. 

Like Paul, Nietzsche proclaimed that this torturous experience was ultimately a liberating one, and was something that each one of us - theist, atheist, agnostic and ignostic alike - must be courageous enough enter into and endure.

Paul, the Ambassador of Christ, and Nietzsche, the self-proclaimed Anti-Christ, both united in preaching the scandalous Good News of Deicide.

supplemental Material

In addition to the video, Gavin asked me to let him take some pictures to go along with the parable. I’ve included that text here, as well as the full parable and a link to a book that offers a sample of Nietzsche’s incendiary writings.