Religion and Marxist Theory - Essay Example

Marxist perspective on Religion Number Introduction The architect and key philosopher of Marxism was the German, Karl Marx. Marx harboured a negative perception of religion (Dorpalen, 1985). He viewed the religious movement as the people’s opium that political elites were exploiting to influence the mainstream working classes unfavourably for their own expediency, while simultaneously acknowledging it as the avenue to remonstration by the mainstream population against the weak economic conditions they face in their lives. Eventually, Marx renounces religion. In the Leninist interpretation of the Marxist theory pioneered by Russian philosopher Vladimir Lenin, the subject is viewed as stifling human development. In light of this reasoning, socialist states based on Marxist-Leninist theory are mainly non-believers and clearly antireligious (Callinicos, 2008). Owing to this resentment, several Marxist-Leninist states in the 20th century made atheism one of the most important government policies (Mezhuev, 2012). Nonetheless, a number of religious communist movements have subsisted in countries such as the Soviet Union and China, which were predominantly atheist and are credited for playing an important role in the ancient growth and spread of communism (Marx, 2002). The Sickness in Religion Karl Marx believes that religious philosophies embrace a system that makes the world order sick. He feels that a society that needs ‘illusionary’ religion lacks something important, based on reality (Dorpalen, 1985). Karl Marx discusses two major roles of religion in the actual societal environment; it involves being the people’s opium and also serving as the way out for discriminated beings. Marx argues that these twin roles of religion are not identical. Marx mentions the two main functions of religious philosophies in what he refers to as the actual society (Thrower, 1983; Pottenger, 1989). According to Mansueto (2002), by comparing religion to opium in reference to the treatment of the members of the society, Marx argues that religion is the source of anaesthesia to the populations. According to him, religion provides a safe passage for people to flee from a number of painful episodes affecting their real life to somewhere they can have a better feeling when their state of anguish is debilitating them. As Callinicos (2008) has argued, religion prevents suffering of the masses as of present. It enables people to eliminate their sorrow because believers have faith in their resuscitation in heaven, or the eternity which will follow their ‘real’ death. And as it would happen after death, religion helps individuals and the society in general have more faith by becoming hopeful even in wake of suffering and loss of the real life. The religious faithful really do have hope that life after death will be better (Aguilan, 2013). In addition, Marxists believe religion perpetuates the oppression of the less privileged in society by the mainstream, dominant members of the middle class and upper class. Conversely, this reasoning deviates from the widely held religious philosophy of sameness before the Christ and treatment of one’s neighbour in a humane way as one would expect to be treated. Religion as a reprieve for suffering The second key role of religion in the world, according to Karl Marx, is the reprieve for victims of oppression helping to explain the value of religion as opposed to the Marxist conceptions. Sawatsky (2011) argues there is some consensus that religion is coupled with a safety essence. Religious faithful end up being soothed into the safety that religion is believed to guarantee them, and due to the widespread need for safety, the unsettled in life normally prefer to subscribe to the religious school of thought. Thrower (1983) points out that Marxists argue that religion also offers people a chance to protest the earthly ways of doing things in society. In light of this, the world is arguably not the way religious philosophies describe it and therefore individuals criticize the world’s reality, as a way of having the insider’s feeling of a holistic member of a particular religious grouping. According to Laqueur (2013), this means that through religion, people often have a deeper understanding of and can readily recognize the dehumanized condition of their existence. It enables people to have a perception of the unbearable condition in which human beings exist; and according to Marxists, this helps retain the members in this horrifying way (Boer, 2010). People acknowledge through religion that the earthly life lacks any meaning that can fulfil their individual goals. As Aguilan (2013) has argued, Marx’s perception of religious philosophy and practices as an opiate in his literature reinforces the point that religion, like other illegal substances, religion usually symbolizes depression and lack of vision. And that, individuals who immerse themselves deeper into religious faith are a clear manifestation that the people are most likely experiencing challenges going about what is beyond their individual understanding (Yang, 2011). Eternal vision of religious faithful Conversely, the widely held religious belief of life after death represents a clear vision and joy, rather than depression and myopia that Marxists insinuate in reference to religion. It can be argued that individuals usually invoke religion as a strategy of lessening physical and emotional pain sparked off by systems of discrimination like racial profiling, sexism or patriarchy, heterosexism and capitalist ideologies (Sawatsky, 2011). These schools of thought are not anywhere in religious teachings. Therefore, the perception of social justice that Marxists support for many atheists to subscribe to will enable people come to terms with the fact that institutionalized religious movements play a pivotal role in fostering credible social transformation. Despite the predisposition of religion as a field in which equality, sanctity to life, and respect for all humanity prevails, the Marxism diatribe of anti-religious philosophies somehow contains some credibility (Yang, 2011). Religion may result in profiling of perceived weaker populations, which culminates in their oppression as Marx argues. Regardless of this reasoning, critics of the Marxist school of thought argue that there are other issues in society that may be contributing to oppression in society (Rehmann, 2011). Oppression is arguably the result of systematic government policies in various societies, which guide different sectors of the economy including the most important one - publicity. In light of these weightier factors, Marxists are arguably wrong to point an accusing finger at only religion as the source of oppression in society. Conclusion Generally, Marx would perceive an association between spiritual belief and liberal social campaigns as a show of an oppressed society looking forward to self-actualization. Arguably, the members of a liberal social activist world are not achieving self-actualization owing their political composition. Scarce necessities, commodities and employment opportunities should be blamed mainly on politics as opposed to religion. Despite the Marxist argument that those who lack self-actualization will tend to look for it elsewhere, the religious faithful mainly seek lessons about good neighbourliness lessons. But true to Marxism, the religious perception of the real, secular world is skewed and discriminatory. References Aguilan, V. (2013). Theology of Struggle: A Convergence of Christianity and Marxism in the Philippines. Asia Journal of Theology, 27(2), 153-171. Boer, R. (2010). Friends, Radical and Estranged: Bruno Bauer and Karl Marx. Religion & Theology, 17(3/4), 358-401. Callinicos, A. (2008). Marxists, Muslims and Religion: Anglo-French Attitudes. Historical Materialism, 16(2), 143-166. Dorpalen, A. (1985). German History in Marxist Perspective: The East German Approach. London: I.B. Tauris. Laqueur, W. (2013). The many faces of neo-Marxism. The National Interest, 125, 88. Mansueto, A.E. (2002). Religion and Dialectics. Washington, DC: University Press of America. Marx, K. (2002). Marx on Religion. Berlin: Temple University Press. Mezhuev, V.M. (2012). The Idea of World History in the Doctrine of Karl Marx. Russian Studies in Philosophy, 51(2), 9-43. Pottenger, J.R. (1989). The Political Theory of Liberation Theology: Toward a Reconvergence of Social Values and Social Sciences. New York: SUNY Press. Rehmann, J. (2011). Can Marxs Critique of Religion Be Freed from Its Fetters? Rethinking Marxism, 23(1), 144-153. Sawatsky, W. (2011). Western perspectives on church-state relations in Soviet Era. Religion in Eastern Europe, 31(3), 26-35. Thrower, J. (1983). Marxist-Leninist "scientific Atheism" and the Study of Religion and Atheism in the USSR. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Yang, F. (2011). Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More