Marx on ReligionReligious suffering is at one and the same time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions.Few people would ever expect that Karl Marx is the writer of the above statement. He not only wrote it, but he did so in the same breath of his more famous dictum that religion is the opiate of the masses. How can one reconcile such different perspectives on the power and ubiquity of religion?In this compact reader of Marx's essential thought on religion, John Raines offers the full range of Marx's thoughts on religion and its relationship to the world of social relations. Through a careful selection of essays, articles, pamphlets, and letters, Raines shows that Marx had a far more complex understanding of religious belief. Equally important is how Marx's ideas on religion were intimately tied to his inquiries into political economy, revolution, social change, and the philosophical questions of the self.Raines offers an introduction that shows the continuing importance of the Marxist perspective on religion and its implications for the way religion continues to act in and respond to the momentous changes going on in our social and environmental worlds. Marx on Religion also includes a study guide to help professors and studentsOCoas well as the general readerOCocontinue to understand the significance of this often under-examined component of Marx." |
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abstract activity ancien régime appears atheism Bauer become bourgeois bourgeoisie Bruno Bauer burgher capital century Christian Church civil society Communist Manifesto conceived concept consciousness constitutes criticism critique demand Descartes division of labor egoistic essential powers estranged labor exchange existence expression external fact feudal Feuerbach force freedom French French materialism Friedrich Engels German heaven Hegel Hegelian hence human essence ideas individual industry Judaism Karl Marx living Luther man's Marx material means metaphysics modern moral movement Münzer nations nature negation object opposition organization particular peasants philosophy plebeians political economy political emancipation positive practical princes private property production proletariat Protestant reality rela relation relationship religion religious revolution revolutionary sciousness secular self-consciousness sense sensuous slaves social species species-being species-life spirit struggle suffering superseded equals supersession theology things thought tion transform true universal whole worker Young Hegelians
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Page 12 - The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors,*' and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment...
Page 5 - Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. 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.