There are two principal elements to Marx’s theory of religion: a critique
of the role of religion in social life, and an explanation of the social basis of
religious consciousness.
It is this concern for autonomy which motivates Feuerbach’s critique of
religion. The values embodied in religious symbols, he argues, are above
reproach. They are, in fact, symbolic representations of humanity’s highest
powers. &dquo;In religion man contemplates his own latent nature&dquo; (1957 :33). The
difficulty, rather, lies in the representation of these qualities as power independent
of, alien to, and above humanity, and thus as in some sense a limitation
of human nature.
This economic alienation, in turn, produces an analogous alienation in the
political and indeological spheres. This ideological alienation is the basis of
religious consciousness.
The worker is related to the product of his labor as to an alien object...
the more the worker expends himself in work, the more powerful becomes
the world of objects which he creates in face of himself, and the poorer
he becomes in inner life, and the less he belongs to himself. It is just
the same as in religion. the more man attributes to God, the less he has
left in himself (1978:72).
Marx’s ideas concerning the political and ideological &dquo;superstructure&dquo;
generally, and religion in particular, must be understood in the context of this
theory of history. Religion, marx believed, derived from our sense of helplessness
in the face of the mysterious and opaque character of natural and social
processes. The advent of science and technology which has accompanied
industrialization under capitalism has created the preconditions for comprehensive
ideological rationalization, setting in motion a process of secularization.
Further, the social character of the productive forces under capitalism,
Marx believed, would create in the working class a new socialist consciousness
rooted in a profound appreciation of the material interdependence characteristic of industrial production.
The specifically political
valence of religious ideology, its role in the class struggle, seems to figure very
little in the Marxist critique of religion, though Marx undoubtedly believed,
and not without some reason, that religious ideas, rooted as they were in a
sense of awe before the mysterious and uncontrolled forces of nature and history,
might have a tendency to promote political passivity. At the same time,
Marx and Engels both were aware that religious ideas have at times played an
important role in catalyzing the struggles of the poor and oppressed (Marx
and Engels 1975:86-104, 170-302), and this seems to have affected very little
their overall judgement on
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