DOCSLIB.ORG

Marxism a Religion Profile from International Students, Inc

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Marxism a Religion Profile from International Students, Inc Marxism A Religion Profile from International Students, Inc. Marxism: An Overview Marxist ideology draws its inspiration from the writings of proposed communal ownership on property by the ruling class Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It stresses the need for a in The Republic. During medieval times, many religious political and economic system that abolishes private property, orders practiced the commonality of goods. Thomas More in and in which all materials goods are held in common by all his book Utopia (1516) proposed common ownership of people. As we shall see, Marxism involves several areas of property. thought, including not only economics and politics, but also ethics, history, human nature, and religion. It is a total “world Several factors existing in the late 1700s and early 1800s view.” provided the impetus for an increase in this type of thinking. One was the French Revolution which emphasized the It is not difficult to understand why Marxist thinking appeals equality of all people. Another was the Romantic Movement to so many people. We live in a world of economic extremes. which fostered a high view of human nature and the The disparity between the rich and the poor is great. perfectibility of people and society. A third was the Industrial Understandably, then, Marxism’s promise of economic Revolution which thrived on a large unskilled labor force in equality is attractive to many who desire to eliminate such the factories. Many of these laborers worked and lived under extremes. Marxism also appeals to those looking for hope and extremely difficult conditions. meaning in life but are disillusioned with other ideologies. In light of the influence of these factors, socialist thinking was No one knows how many people in the world are committed found in many writers of the early 1800s. Among these were to Marxism. But there can be no denying that it had an Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Etienne Cabet, Robert unsurpassed influence on humankind during the 20th century. Owen (who founded New Harmony, Indiana), Louis Blanc, Although it has suffered severe political and economic Pierre Proudhon, Prosper Enfanten, Victor Considerant, and setbacks in recent years (particularly in the former Soviet August Comte. Union and Eastern Europe), Marxism remains a viable and appealing ideology to many. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Even in American universities, Marxism wields tremendous Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818, at Trier, Prussia, to influence. An article in U.S. News and World Report, January Heinrich and Henriette Marx. His father was a lawyer. Both 25, 1982, stated that there were 10,000 Marxist professors on his parents were Jews, having descended from a long line of America’s campuses. An article in the August 29, 1989, rabbis. However, in order to continue his law practice in a Denver Post stated that as many as 90 percent of faculty “Christian” environment, Heinrich converted to Lutheranism members at some Midwestern universities are Marxists. The in 1816. Karl and his siblings were baptized in1824. influence of these professors on the thinking of students in U.S. universities should not be underestimated. During his years in school at Trier, Marx wrote a paper on John 15 concerning the importance of union with Christ. In it History of Marxism he said, “Union with Christ bestows inner exaltation, consolation in suffering, calm assurance, and a heart which is Early Roots open to love of mankind, to all that is noble, to all that is great, not out of ambition, not through the desire of fame, but Throughout history there have been people who have proposed only because of Christ.” (Geisler, 68). His school records ideas similar to those of Karl Marx. In the 300s B.C., Plato show that Marx was “of evangelical faith” and that his “moral 1 behavior towards superiors and fellow pupils was good” during his life. His works were not widely read until after his (Mazlish, 45). Marx identified at least externally with the death. There were only six people at his funeral. The closing Christian faith. words of Engels’ oration at his funeral, however, have proven true: “His name will endure through the ages, and so also his In 1835, Marx went to the University of Bonn, and a year later work!” (Sowell, 186). to the University of Berlin. After completing his work in philosophy at the University of Berlin, his dissertation was Marxism after Marx finally accepted by the University of Jena, which granted Marx his Ph.D. in 1841. By the time he had started his Though Marx and Engels laid the foundation for the ideology university education, he was an atheist. While there, he was which became known as Marxism, its development was influenced by Ludwig Feurerbach’s critique of religion as a shaped by a number of other writers in the late 19th and early creation of man, as well as by Bruno Bauer and Richard 20th centuries. In 1889, at the meeting of the Second Strauss (the latter said Jesus never existed). As a student he International Workingman’s Association in Paris, a conflict identified with the “Young Hegelians,” the liberal branch of arose between Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein. The latter the followers of Hegel. believed that a gradual approach was better than the revolutionary doctrine propounded by Marx. He believed the Though Marx hoped to obtain a teaching position, his liberal political and economic system could be changed gradually. political views forced him to pursue a career in journalism. In Those who followed Bernstein became known as 1843, he married Jenny von Westphalen, who was from an “Revisionists.” Modern “Eurocommunism” represented this aristocratic family in Trier. That same year they moved to line of thinking. Kautsky, on the other hand, defended the Paris where Marx wrote briefly for a newspaper. There they need for revolution to institute socialism. He became the came into contact with many radical thinkers. Among them leading theoretician of orthodox Marxism in the late 19th was Friedrich Engels (son of a German industrialist), who century. would become Karl’s lifelong friend and collaborator. No one influenced the future of the Marxist more than V.I. Between 1845 and 1848, the Marxes moved several times Lenin. He emerged in the early 20th century as leader of the between various countries in Europe. In 1848, Marx and Bolshevik wing of the Social Democratic Party in Russia. It Engels published The Communist Manifesto for the was because of his leadership that the Communists came to Communist League (composed mostly of intellectuals and power in Russia in 1917. He differed from Marx in at least the professionals). It was a summons to revolution. This estab- following respects: First, he believed that it was necessary for lished them as the leading theoreticians of the Communist the Communist Party to take control of the revolution rather Movement. than expecting the working class to instigate it on its own. He also believed that the party would need to take tight control of In 1849, Marx and Engels moved to England. Engels went to socialist society after the revolution. Second, he believed that work for his father’s factory in Manchester. The Marxes lived capitalism had not disintegrated, as Marx predicted, because in London, where they spent most of the remainder of their of its imperialistic exploitation of the third world. Thus, he lives in poverty. Marx’s only regular income was as a foreign believed that a communist revolution would take place in a correspondent for the New York Tribune. Most of the rest of non-industrialized society like Russia rather than in their income came from periodic gifts from Engels. industrialized countries like Great Britain or the U.S. Since 1917, the Communist Movement has been more accurately Marx devoted his life to studying at the British Museum and defined as Marxism-Leninism. writing on a variety of themes, particularly economics. In 1858, he published Outlines for a Critique of Political After Lenin died in 1924, Josef Stalin consolidated control Economy. In 1864, he emerged as leader of the First over the Communist Party, and eventually became Head of International Workingman’s Association. In 1867, Marx State. He instituted the most brutal form of totalitarianism published the first volume of Capital, which was largely a rule. It is estimated that he was responsible for the liquidation critique of capitalist economics. The second and third volumes of 20 million people (Hill, Turbulent Times, 70). were published by Engels (from Marx’s notes) after his death. This would prove to be his major life work. After WWII, communism spread to many other countries outside the Soviet Union, notably to China and Eastern Marx continued to write during his later years, but suffered Europe. The brutality of Stalinism gave rise in the 1950s to a many serious health problems. He died March 14, 1883. Of his more humanistic strain of Marxism, particularly in seven children (one died at childbirth), only two survived him Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The humanistic Marxists (both of them later committed suicide) (Mazlish 64). drew from Marx’s earlier writings the idea that the goal of socialism was to liberate humankind from a state of Marx was relatively unknown outside revolutionary circles “alienation,” and to enable people to fulfill their potential. 2 They sought a more democratic kind of socialism than did In other words, economics determines everything about a society, Stalin. In recent years, most communist societies have including government, the prevailing ideas, laws, and even reli- experienced severe economic crises which have led to the gion. Economics, not ideas, is the determining factor in history. collapse of communist regimes.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Non-Christian Nature of Marxism
    The Non-Christian Nature of Marxism Andrew T. Looker, Jr. HSOG Culture and Crisis Conference Liberty University March 6, 2021 I am from Charlotte, North Carolina. I graduated from Liberty University in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in U.S. Government, with a concentration in Politics and Policy. I also graduated with a minor in History. I am currently in my second semester of studies in the Master of Arts in Public Policy program. Introduction Marxism is one of the most impactful philosophies in the history of mankind. It refers to the political and economic theories formulated by Karl Marx, a German philosopher who lived from 1818 to 1883. Marx’s most well-known works include the Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1859). Marxism initially consisted of the three related ideas of a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and a radical economic and political program.1 More specifically, Marx claimed that capitalism is just one stage in the historical progression from inferior economic systems to superior ones. Marx held that every society throughout history has been divided into different social classes which drive conflict. Within the capitalist framework, Marx claimed that society consisted of two classes: the bourgeoisie, or the business class who control the means of production, and the proletariat, or the workers whose labor produces valuable economic goods. In Marx’s view, the bourgeoisie profit at the expense of the proletariat, who they exploit by means of low wages and poor working conditions. As the political and economic inequalities between the upper and working classes continue to grow, Marx predicted that the proletariat would increasingly become alienated from capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Mystified Consciousness: Rethinking the Rise of the Far Right with Marx and Lacan
    Open Cultural Studies 2018; 2: 236–248 Research Article Claudia Leeb* Mystified Consciousness: Rethinking the Rise of the Far Right with Marx and Lacan https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2018-0022 Received March 31, 2018; accepted September 2, 2018 Abstract: This paper brings core concepts coined by Karl Marx in conversation with Jacques Lacan to analyse some of the mechanisms that have mystified subjects’ consciousness, and contributed to a scenario where the (white) working-classes in the United States and elsewhere turned to the far right that further undermines their existence, instead of uniting with the raced and gendered working class to overthrow capitalism. It explains that the money fetish, which we find at the centre of the American Dream of wholeness (on earth), serves as the unconscious fantasy object petit a to deal with the desires and fears subjects fundamental non-wholeness creates, which have been heightened by the insecurities of neoliberal capitalism and exploited by the far right. It also shows how religion offers the illusion of wholeness in the sky, which produces subjects who endure rather than rebel against their suffering. Finally, it explains how the far-right brands the sexed and raced working-classes as inferior to uphold the illusion of the white working-class subjects as whole, which further undermines the creation of a revolutionary proletariat. Keywords: far right, Marx, Lacan Introduction1 The reform of consciousness consists only in enabling the world to clarify its consciousness, in waking it from its dream about itself, in explaining to it the meaning of its own actions (Marx, “For a Ruthless Critique” 15).
    [Show full text]
  • A Post-Capitalist, Post-Stalinist Social Democracy: Hungary 1956 and 1990
    Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe Volume 11 Issue 2 Article 3 1991 A Post-Capitalist, Post-Stalinist Social Democracy: Hungary 1956 and 1990 Leslie A. Muray Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree Part of the Eastern European Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Muray, Leslie A. (1991) "A Post-Capitalist, Post-Stalinist Social Democracy: Hungary 1956 and 1990," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 11 : Iss. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol11/iss2/3 This Article, Exploration, or Report is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. · .. , A POST-CAPITALIST, POST-STALINIST SOCIAL DEMOCRACY: HUNGARY 1956 and 1990 by Leslie A. Muray Dr. Leslie A, Muray (Episcopalian) is a professor at Lansing Community College in Michigan. Born in Hungary, he came to the U.S.A. as a young boy. He received his Ph.D. degree at Claremont Graduate Theogical School in California. He is the editor of the C.A.R.E.E. Newsletter on the Christian-Marxist Encounter. This paper presented at the "Marxism and Religion" seminar, at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, November 19, 1990. It is rather commonplace to hear that there is no tradition of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Focusing on resources provided by history, religion, and certain aspects of Marxist thought for the construction of a non-capitalist, post-Stalinist society in the country of the author's birth, Hungary, I hope to dispel this Western European and North American stereotype in this essay.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Remembering Marx's Secularism* Scholars Engaged in the Critique Of
    Remembering Marx’s Secularism* Scholars engaged in the critique of secularism have struggled with the numerous meanings of the secular and its cognates, such as secularism, secularization, and secularity. Seeking coherence in the secular’s semantic excess, they have often elided distinctions between these meanings or sought a more basic concept of the secular that can contain all of its senses (Asad 2003; Taylor 2007; see Weir 2015). Numerous scholars have observed strong similarities between secularism and Protestantism (Fessenden 2007; Modern 2011; Yelle 2013; see McCrary and Wheatley 2017), at times echoing a Christian theological tradition that has long been anti-secular (Taylor 2007; Gregory 2012; see Reynolds 2016). Unlike this anti-secular tradition, the strongest version of the critique of secularism is a critique of the conditions that produce a distinction between secular and religious and a critique of the ways that empire benefits from this distinction. Overcoming a tidy separation between secularism and religion requires fracturing both and reassembling them in new ways that allow messy life to exceed governance (Hurd 2015, 122- 27). Remembering Karl Marx’s secularism provides an opportunity to recover the differences within secularism and its difference from Christianity, but also its odd similarities with religion. This recovery can help refine the critique of secularism and preserve some important tools for improving material conditions. * Joseph Blankholm, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. I owe thanks to several PhD students at the University of California, Santa Barbara for their valuable insights and feedback, including Matthew Harris, as well as the students in my seminar on materialism: Timothy Snediker, Lucas McCracken, Courtney Applewhite, and Damian Lanahan-Kalish.
    [Show full text]
  • Opiate of the Masses? Social Inequality, Religion, and Politics
    OPIATE OF THE MASSES? SOCIAL INEQUALITY, RELIGION, AND POLITICS Landon Schnabel* Indiana University, Bloomington Abstract: This study considers the assertion that religion is the opiate of the masses. Using a special module of the General Social Survey and drawing on structuration and positionality theories, I first demonstrate that religion functions as a compensatory resource for disadvantaged groups— women, racial minorities, those with lower incomes, and, to a lesser extent, sexual minorities. I then demonstrate that religion—operating as both palliative resource and values-shaping schema—suppresses what would otherwise be larger group differences in political values. This study provides empirical support for Marx’s general claim that religion is the “sigh of the oppressed creature” and suppressor of emancipatory politics. It expands upon and refines the economics-focused argument, however, showing that religion provides (1) compensatory resources for lack of social, and not just economic, status, and (2) traditional-values-oriented schemas that impact social attitudes more than economic attitudes. I conclude that religion is not a simple distraction, but instead a complex and powerful social structure in which people both receive psychological compensation and develop rules-based belief systems that shape their political values. Key Words: Inequality; Religion; Politics; Attitudes; Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Class; Sexuality Last Revised: 1/4/2018 Running Head: Opiate of the Masses? Word Count: 11,128 Figures: 1 Tables: 7 THIS IS A DRAFT. DO NOT QUOTE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT AUTHOR PERMISSION. * The author is grateful to Brian Powell for exceptional feedback. He would also like to thank Art Alderson, Clem Brooks, Youngjoo Cha, Andy Halpern-Manners, Patricia McManus, Chris Munn, Roshan Pandian, Brian Steensland, Evan Stewart, Jenny Trinitapoli, and members of the Indiana University Politics, Economy, and Culture Workshop for helpful input.
    [Show full text]
  • Sing 2018 Tempestuous Affair.Pdf
    Muslims and Capitalism – An Uneasy Relationship? Edited by Béatrice Hendrich KULTUR, RECHT UND POLITIK IN MUSLIMISCHEN GESELLSCHAFTEN Herausgegeben von Thomas Bauer, Stephan Conermann, Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf, Gudrun Krämer, Anke von Kügelgen, Eva Orthmann, Anja Pistor-Hatam, Irene Schneider, Reinhard Schulze Band 39 ERGON VERLAG Muslims and Capitalism – An Uneasy Relationship? Edited by Béatrice Hendrich ERGON VERLAG Gedruckt mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Köln Umschlagabbildung: Claudia Bülbül, Feldforschung 2014, AKM Şura, Ort: KA-MU-DER Vakfı Fatih İstanbul Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. © Ergon – ein Verlag in der Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2018 Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb des Urheberrechtsgesetzes bedarf der Zustimmung des Verlages. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen jeder Art, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und für Einspeicherungen in elektronische Systeme. Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem Papier. Umschlaggestaltung: Jan von Hugo Satz: Thomas Breier www.ergon-verlag.de ISBN 978-3-95650-463-1 (Print) ISBN 978-3-95650-464-8 (ePDF) ISSN 1863-9801 Table of Contents Béatrice Hendrich Introduction: Exalting the Past, Rebelling against the Present, and Struggling for a (Better) Future? ............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Of Ernst Bloch Michael Löwy
    C The Principle of Hope from Ernst Bloch is undoubtedly one C R R I of the major works of emancipatory thought in the twentieth century. I Romanticism, Marxism S Monumental (more than 1600 pages), it occupied the author for a large S I I S part of his life.Written during his exile in United States, from 1938 to S 1947, it would be reviewed for the first time in 1953 and a second in & & and Religion in the 1959. Following his condemnation as “revisionist” by authorities of the C C R German Democratic Republic, the author eventually left East Germany R I in 1961. I “Principle of Hope” of T T I Nobody had ever written a book like this, stirring in the same I Q breath the visionary pre-Socratic and Hegelian alchemy, the new Q U U Ernst Bloch E Hoffmann, the serpentine heresy and messianism of Shabbataï Tsevi, E Schelling’s philosophy of art, Marxist materialism, Mozart’s operas V V O and the utopias of Fourier. Open a page at random: it is about the man O L. L. 2 of Renaissance, the concept of (material) substance in Parecelse and 2 Jakob Böhme, of the Holy Family in Marx, of the doctrine of knowledge I I S in Giordano Bruno and the book on the Reform of Knowledge of S S Spinoza. The erudition of Bloch is so encyclopedic that very few readers S Michael Löwy U U E are capable of judging the entirety of each theme developed in the three E #1 volumes of the book.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxismo Y Religión: ¿Opio Del Pueblo?**
    Michael Löwy* Marxismo y religión: ¿opio del pueblo?** ¿ES AÚN LA RELIGIÓN, tal como Marx y Engels la entendían en el siglo XIX, un baluarte de reacción, oscurantismo y conservadurismo? Brevemente, sí, lo es. Su punto de vista se aplica aún a muchas institu- ciones católicas (el Opus Dei es sólo el ejemplo más obvio), al uso fun- damentalista corriente de las principales confesiones (cristiana, judía, musulmana), a la mayoría de los grupos evangélicos (y su expresión en la denominada “iglesia electrónica”), y a la mayoría de las nuevas sectas religiosas, algunas de las cuales, como la notoria iglesia del reverendo Moon, son nada más que una hábil combinación de manipulaciones financieras, lavado de cerebro y anticomunismo fanático. Sin embargo, la emergencia del cristianismo revolucionario y de la teología de la liberación en América Latina (y en otras partes) abre un capítulo histórico y alza nuevas y excitantes preguntas que no pueden responderse sin una renovación del análisis marxista de la religión. Inicialmente, confrontados con tal fenómeno, los marxistas recu- rrirían a un modelo tradicional que concibe a la iglesia como un cuerpo reaccionario enfrentando a los trabajadores y los campesinos cristianos * Filósofo y director de investigación del Centro Nacional de Investigación Científica de Francia, CNRS. ** Traducción de Bárbara Schijman. Revisión de Michael Löwy. 281 La teoría marxista hoy que podrían haber sido considerados soportes de la revolución. Incluso mucho tiempo después, la muerte del Padre Camilo Torres Restrepo, quien se había unido a la guerrilla colombiana, fue considerada un caso excepcional. Corría el año 1966. Pero el creciente compromiso de los cristianos –incluidos muchos religiosos y curas– con las luchas popula- res y su masiva inserción en la revolución sandinista claramente mos- traron la necesidad de un nuevo enfoque.
    [Show full text]
  • Engines of Change—Karl Marx (German, 1818–1883)
    03-Allen.qxd 12/23/2004 11:50 AM Page 63 CHAPTER 3 Engines of Change—Karl Marx (German, 1818–1883) 63 03-Allen.qxd 12/23/2004 11:50 AM Page 64 64—— EXPLORATIONS IN CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY ● The Perspective: Human Nature, History, and Reality 69 ● The Basic Features of Capitalism 75 ● The Ramifications of Capitalism 85 ● Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity 95 ● Summary 97 ● Building Your Theory Toolbox 98 A knowledge of the writings of Marx and Engels is virtually indis- pensable to an educated person in our time.... For classical Marxism...has profoundly affected ideas about history, society, economics, ideology, culture, and politics; indeed, about the nature of social inquiry itself....Not to be well grounded in the writings of Marx and Engels is to be insufficiently attuned to modern thought, and self-excluded to a degree from the continuing debate by which most contemporary societies live insofar as their members are free and able to discuss the vital issues. (Tucker, 1978, p. ix) arl Marx forms the foundation for much sociological as well as social think- ing (even for people unaware of his influence). Marx is the one that gave us K the initial insight to see patterns of conflict evolving and revolving around systems of inequality. So, anytime we notice, understand, and care about inequali- ties, we are seeing the world like Marx did. Marx also taught us to pay attention to the economy and the state and how the elite in those institutions use power and ide- ology. If we see class as an important determinant in life, then we are thinking like Marx.
    [Show full text]
  • Opiate of the Masses? Social Status, Religion, and Politics
    OPIATE OF THE MASSES? SOCIAL STATUS, RELIGION, AND POLITICS Landon Schnabel* Indiana University, Bloomington Abstract: This study considers the assertion that religion is the opiate of the masses and examines whether this way of understanding religion can be used to account for two key sociological questions: (1) sociodemographic differences in religiosity and (2) apparent inconsistencies in the positionality principle of politics. Using a special module of the General Social Survey, I first demonstrate that groups with less status—women, racial minorities, those with lower incomes, and sexual minorities—receive more compensatory psychological benefits from religion and spirituality and that these compensatory benefits help explain group differences in religiosity. I then demonstrate that religious compensation acts as a suppressor variable between status and politics, suppressing the liberal politics of disadvantaged groups by facilitating and reinforcing religiosity. This study, therefore, provides empirical support for Marx’s general claim that religion is the “sigh of the oppressed creature” and suppressor of political consciousness. It expands and refines the argument, however, by showing that (1) it can apply to disadvantaged social status in addition to disadvantaged economic status; (2) the suppression of progressive politics appears to be due to the conservatizing nature of religiosity as much or more than other-worldly distraction; and (3) this suppression is stronger on issues closely linked to traditional religious values than on economic issues. I conclude that compensatory benefits from religion should be more central to and frequently measured in the study of religion, inequality, and politics. Key Words: Religion; Politics; Public Opinion; Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Class; Sexuality; Inequality; Well-being; Marx Last Revised: 6/1/2017 Running Head: Opiate of the Masses? Word Count: 11,996 Tables: 7 Figures: 0 THIS IS A DRAFT.
    [Show full text]
  • From Modes of Production to the Resurrection of the Body: a Labor Theory of Revolutionary Subjectivity & Religious Ideas
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (1934 -) Projects From Modes of Production to the Resurrection of the Body: A Labor Theory of Revolutionary Subjectivity & Religious Ideas Benjamin Suriano Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Suriano, Benjamin, "From Modes of Production to the Resurrection of the Body: A Labor Theory of Revolutionary Subjectivity & Religious Ideas" (2016). Dissertations (1934 -). 628. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/628 FROM MODES OF PRODUCTION TO THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY: A LABOR THEORY OF REVOLUTIONARY SUBJECTIVITY & RELIGIOUS IDEAS by Ben Suriano A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2016 ABSTRACT FROM MODES OF PRODUCTION TO THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY: A LABOR THEORY OF REVOLUTIONARY SUBJECTIVITY & RELIGIOUS IDEAS Ben Suriano Marquette University, 2016 In this dissertation I attempt two needed tasks within historical materialism: first, to reestablish the standpoint of labor as the normative basis for critical theory beyond irrational bourgeois categories, and second, to show that labor’s own self-mediating rationalization, if it is to move beyond these contradictory categories, necessarily requires a certain
    [Show full text]
  • Gustavo Gutiérrez's Notion of “Liberation”
    Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Notion of “Liberation” and Marx’s Legacy of “Ruthless Criticism” by Sarah Lynn Kleeb A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religion University of Toronto © Copyright by Sarah Lynn Kleeb 2015 ii Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Notion of “Liberation” and Marx’s Legacy of “Ruthless Criticism” Sarah Lynn Kleeb Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religion University of Toronto 2015 Abstract This dissertation examines the content and meaning of Gustavo Gutiérrez’s notion of liberation in his pre- and post-1986 writings, framing the trajectory of this notion as a direct response to the 1984 and 1986 Vatican condemnations of liberation theology, composed by former-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now, former-Pope Benedict XVI). While Gutiérrez’s early theology was in part informed by Marxian social critique, charges of explicit “Marxism” resulted in a significant reordering of some central critical elements, in ways that complicate the fundamental liberationist assertion that theology is to be a “second act.” Following Ratzinger’s critique, Gutiérrez moves ever closer to a theology that talks about liberation, and away from a theology that is itself liberatory, particularly as bound to praxis and critique. Where Gutiérrez once questioned the very meaning of religious unity in a world characterized by (economic) division, for example, his later theology abandons such speculation, asking instead, “How are we to live evangelical charity in the midst of this situation?” The ramifications of this shift are such that the initial aims of Gutiérrez’s liberation theology have largely been re-assigned, with a focus on liberation as a question of faith rather than a question of human emancipation and agency.
    [Show full text]