A Difficult Love Affair? On the Relation between Marxism and Theology (Boer | MR)

[struggle4progress]

04.04.10
by Roland Boer

... The relationship -- often difficult and rancorous -- between Marxism and theology continues to fascinate me. Why are Marxism and theology so close, I wonder? Why do they argue so much? Is it something that weakens each one, holding the other back? Or are they perhaps stronger and sharper because of that tense connection? ...

... Initially I tried to contain my study to Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin .. and Theodor Adorno (who wrote his first book on philosophy, his habilitation on Kierkegaard, under the direction of the theologian Paul Tillich ..). I sent the manuscript off in 2003, but was unhappy with it. So I pulled it and began working on it again. It grew and grew: Henri Lefebvre had been part of the Roman Catholic Church, albeit with the heretical Jansenists (his mother was one) only to undertake a lifelong flight from it ..; Louis Althusser wrote a number of early theological essays before turning to Marxism .., and the themes from those early essays permeate his later work; Antonio Gramsci wrote extensively on the Roman Catholic Church in Italy, the Reformation and so on ..; Terry Eagleton had been a left theologian (and wrote some theological books) before becoming a Marxist, only to return to the theology in the new millennium ..; Slavoj ŽŽižek had thrashed his way to the New Testament via, of all people, Lenin ... By the time I had finished the manuscript of Criticism of Heaven it contained 290,000 words, which would have been a book of over 700 pages. I talked to a few publishers, but when I mentioned how long it was, they looked the other way. I sent it to Verso, it fell into the hands of Sebastien Budgen, who wrote to me to say it was too long for Verso, but that the Historical Materialism Book Series with Brill may well be interested. And then, after the poor referees had to wade through it, Peter Thomas wrote to me and said, yes, they would publish it, but perhaps I could try to 'shave off' 100,000 words ...

... Yet before I knew it, I had another book in hand. There were more Marxists dealing with theology, the Bible and even the Church! Rosa Luxemburg had written a booklet called Socialism and the Churches, where she argued for an early Christian communism and freedom of conscience on religious matters ... Karl Kautsky had not only written his fascinating but problematic Foundations of Christianity .., but also a massive unfinished study called Forerunners of Modern Socialism .. where he explored the various heretical sects in the Middle Ages and then the socialist dimensions of the Protestant Reformation, including his hero Thomas More ... Fredric Jameson has written a few essays on theological themes, such as those on Milton and St Augustine .., but theological questions that go back to Feuerbach lie behind sections of his recent Archaeologies of the Future ... Lucien Goldmann remained fascinated by the theological dialectics of Pascal and Jansenism ..; Alain Badiou .. and Giorgio Agamben .. sought to resuscitate Paul in the New Testament as a revolutionary; Raymond Williams had more to say than most of us would think on the Baptist Chapel of his native Wales; even George Lukács was given to curious theological arguments (such as that the novel is the genre of the world abandoned by God ..) and spent his lifetime trying to eradicate what he saw as his messianic utopianism ...

... While Marx was given to perpetual allusions from the Bible, theology and the Church, often with an ironic twist, Engels knew his Bible rather well. Able to read Koine (New Testament) Greek, having renounced with difficulty his evangelical (in the old German sense) faith, and keeping up with biblical studies, Engels was no amateur on these matters. He is even the source of a central element in the history of early Christianity, namely its beginnings among the exploited classes in the Roman Empire. The famous observation from his On the History of Early Christianity reads: 'Christianity was originally a movement of oppressed people: it first appeared as a religion of slaves and freedmen, of poor people deprived of all rights, of peoples subjugated or dispersed by Rome' ... This position is not merely a staple of some strains of Marxist work, but is also a debated matter in New Testament studies and Church history ...

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/boer040410.html

[damntexdem]

1. A red-diaper baby once explained to me why so many Marxists had been raised Xian:

They were raised in a total world view and sought another.

Whatever one thinks of the adequacy of either world view, or of total world views in general, it is reasonable that those raised in one seek one out after rejecting the first.

[rug]

2. Marx opposed the use of religion to support oppression and state power.

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people." - Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right

Beyond that, it's irrelevant to politics.

[struggle4progress]

4. God and man in Latin America (NYT review | 1987)

By ALAN RIDING
Alan Riding is chief of The New York Times bureau in Rio de Janeiro and the author of ''Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans.''
Published: June 14, 1987

Correction Appended
FIDEL AND RELIGION Castro Talks on Revolution and Religion With Frei Betto. Translated by The Cuban Center for Translation and Interpretation. Introduction by Harvey Cox ...

... it apparently took the triumph of the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution to prompt Mr. Castro to revise his views of the Latin American church. Not only had Nicaragua's bishops publicly justified a popular uprising against the Somoza regime's tyranny just days before the rebels launched their final offensive, but many priests and nuns worked alongside Sandinista activists in mobilizing workers and peasants to participate. After the revolution, the church - along with Nicaraguan society - divided, with Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo of Managua eventually emerging as a powerful opposition voice. But, risking the wrath of the Vatican, three priests became and remained Sandinista ministers, while other clergy promoted a new People's Church that had liberation theology as its creed. Further, despite their subsequent clashes with Cardinal Obando, the Sandinista leadership never failed to emphasize that the revolution embraced Christianity.

Mr. Castro, then, drew several lessons from the Nicaraguan experience. He recognized that - unlike in Cuba, where the number of active Catholics was relatively small - religion was so ingrained in the popular culture of Nicaragua and many other Latin American countries that atheist revolutions were not feasible. At the same time he concluded that while liberation theology was ''one of the most important events of our time,'' its importance lay not in its religious message but ''in its profound impact on the political views of its followers.'' It had therefore become possible - indeed recommendable - for revolutionaries to forge strategic alliances with activist sectors of the church in order to achieve common moral and political objectives.

''Fidel and Religion,'' the transcript of 23 hours of interviews in May 1985 between Mr. Castro and Frei Betto, a Brazilian Dominican friar and advocate of liberation theology, is the ultimate proof that the subject now merits his attention. In reality, the subject doesn't get his full attention here: Mr. Castro, known for his prolific opinions on every imaginable subject, devotes more than half the interview to reminiscences about his childhood, youth and days as a guerrilla leader and to answering journalistic questions about whether Cuba is a democracy or ''exports'' revolution. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating document, which, since it was first published in Spanish and Portuguese, has become a massive best seller throughout Latin America. Its publication in English will be welcomed by anyone interested in Fidel Castro, Cuba, Latin America, the Roman Catholic Church or revolution. It is well translated by the Cuban Center for Translation and Interpretation. THE fact that the interview was given to a priest, especially one who spent four years in jail in Brazil for his political activism, can be no coincidence. Mr. Castro was talking to an admirer. He could also count on sympathy when he noted that the church's historical position ''on the side of the conquerors, oppressors and exploiters'' explained why ''the revolutionary ideas that emerged in the struggle against those age-old injustices had an antireligious spirit.'' But perhaps most of all, Mr. Castro wanted endorsement of his claim that the church had changed in order to share his point of view and, in doing so, had recognized the moral and ethical qualities of his revolution.

At one point, he argued that it is not possible to practice ''non-belief as a philosophy,'' yet he described his beliefs in religious terms, such as the ''revelation'' of his discovery of ''the irrefutable truths of Marxist literature.'' He noted: ''I think that religious martyrs were generous, selfless men; they were made of the same stuff of which revolutionary heroes are made. Without those qualities, there can be no religious or political heroes.'' And he added: ''I believe that Karl Marx could have subscribed to the Sermon on the Mount.'' In the end, in fact, the message he seemed most anxious to convey was that he and his revolutionaries are better Christians than most Christians. Not surprisingly, he showed little interest in the evangelical aspects of liberation theology ...

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/14/books/god-and-man-in-latin-america.html?pagewanted=all

[rug]

5. Interesting review.

Still, to mix any religion with any political movement sullies them both.

[tama]

3. Marxist materialism

First, totalitarianism (understood as universalistic homogenizing) seems to be sickness inherent in all imperialistic civilizations that need to constantly grow to survive as systems (after fouling up their own nests). Biological analogy is cancer tumor.

Marxism is revolutionary product of Europe of revolutionary Christianity and revolutionary capitalism, thus naturally there is interest in the Christian revolution and euro-centric myopia. I doubt that Maoists share the same interest with Christianity, interesting question is relation of Maoism with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

Marxist (historical and dialectical) materialism is not to be confused with naive realism, but derives from Greek atomist's (Democritus etc.) philosophical materialism, which was the subject of Marx' doctoral thesis.

Marxist historical materialism is not ontological metaphysics (ie. "just another idealism" or 'ought from is' -fallacy) but an ethical philosophy in dialectic relation with Hegel's idealistic dialectics (uppity academics in Ivory Tower), stressing that the purpose of philosophy is not to describe the world but to change it. It shares the Christian ethos of criticism of Mammon, worshiping money instead of acting with compassion.

As descriptive theory Marxist historical materialistic analysis of capitalism is a theory of cultural evolution, closely related to Darwinism, and with excellent predictive power, remaining still basically unfalsified. "Spiritual" aspect of historical materialism is attempt to raise the consciousness of proletariat to brake their chains of slavery to capitalists and form a classless society.

Of course, the anarchist criticism of Marxism remains as valid as ever; which does not exclude the possibility of synthesis - such as zapatista synthesis of anarchism, marxism and indigenous way of life, based on method of respectful and attentive listening (which, surprise surprise, raises the consciousness and collective intelligence of participants far far better that any dogmatic preaching).

[Odin2005]

6. Popular Marxism absorbed a lot of Western Christian eschatological sentiment.

In fact Marxism itself is just the Modern version of a uniquely Western conception of history that dates back over a 1000 years. The Second Coming, the faith in "Progress", and "The Revolution" are merely variations of the same theme that runs throughout Western history.