All of the institutions which are prominent in our daily lives—marriage, church, government, arts, etc.—can only be truly understood when examined in relation to economic forces. Knappe Übersicht von Marx' Kerngedanken zur Kritik der Religion als Tafelbild In seiner Schrift “Zur Kritik der Hegel’schen Rechts-Philosophie”, Paris 1844, diffamiert Karl Marx die Religion als Opium des Volkes.In Anknüpfung an Feuerbach kritisiert er die Religion als Werk des (durch die verkehrte Gesellschaft) entfremdeten Menschen. Häufig wird das Zitat verfälscht in der Version Religion ist Opium für das Volk benutzt. Das Zitat stammt aus der um die Jahreswende 1843/44 verfassten Einleitung zu seiner Schrift Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie. [22][23], After the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, a socialist state more reflective of the values shared by Vietnam and allies of the Soviet Union was established. berlin war nach hegels tod stark von ihm beeinflusst. [13] However, importance was placed on secularism and non-violence towards the religious: But the campaign against the backwardness of the masses in this matter of religion, must be conducted with patience and considerateness, as well as with energy and perseverance. Marx has three reasons for disliking religion. Between Moscow and London: Romanian Orthodoxy and National Communism, 1960–1965. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. At best, the return on investment is the same whether the work is done by people or machines. [...] The failure of the regime in the former Soviet Union was, for me, not the failure of Marxism but the failure of totalitarianism. This has two flaws. While critical of religion, Lenin also specifically made a point to not include it in Our Programme or his ideological goals, arguing: But under no circumstances ought we to fall into the error of posing the religious question in an abstract, idealistic fashion, as an "intellectual" question unconnected with the class struggle, as is not infrequently done by the radical-democrats from among the bourgeoisie. [35], During the Russian Civil War, Jews were seen as communist sympathizers and thousands were murdered in pogroms by the White Army. During the late 19th century and also when Albania became a state, religions were suppressed in order to better unify Albanians. By the same token, religion can, in turn, have an influence on society’s economic system. Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels. Capitalism also creates one new misery: exploitation of surplus value. Marx’s opinion was that religion is an illusion that provides reasons and excuses to keep society functioning just as it is. In the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Marx famously stated: Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. 2. After 1941 in the Stalin era, religious persecution was greatly reduced. [45][46], Throughout the Second Red Scare, the fear of the "Godless communist" rooted itself as an epithet and a warning to the United States in a changing global environment. [32], In the 1950s and the 1960s, liberation theology was the political praxis of Latin American theologians, such as Gustavo Gutiérrez of Peru, Leonardo Boff of Brazil, Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay and Jon Sobrino of Spain, who made popular the phrase the "Preferential option for the poor". The current Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso speaks positively of Marxism despite the heavy persecution of the Tibetan people by the post-Mao Zedong and post-Cultural Revolution Chinese government. Karl Marx was a German philosopher who attempted to examine religion from an objective, scientific perspective. Hegel was a complicated philosopher, but it is possible to draw a rough outline for our purposes. Religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. Religion ist für ihn Symptom (als Teil des ideologischen Überbaus), nicht Ursache der menschlichen M isere. Für den Philosophen und Ökonomen Karl Marx ist die historische Entwicklung einer Gesellschaft immer eine Geschichte von Klassenkämpfen. But what does it mean? P 4, John Anderson, Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp 3, Sang M. Lee writes that Albania was "[o]fficially an atheist state under Hoxha...", Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu. But eventually, humans developed agriculture and the concept of private property. In the "Wages of Labour" of the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx wrote: "To develop in greater spiritual freedom, a people must break their bondage to their bodily needs—they must cease to be the slaves of the body. Those social institutions are a superstructure built upon the base of economics, totally dependent upon material and economic realities but nothing else. A worker could, in theory, take a beautiful piece of raw wood and, after many hours, produce a terribly ugly sculpture. There are many similarities and differences between the schools of thought, but one of the most common things they share are the time frame within which both ideologies were founded as well as some social and economic perspective. 52, No. A second problem is his claim that religion is wholly determined by material and economic realities. Juli 1804 in Landshut Mensch ist ... endlich unvollkommen zeitlich sündhaft Gott ist ... unendlich vollkommen ewig heilig Projektion Wünsche des Menschen und Glückseligkeitstrieb On the other hand, Marxist philosophy is famously atheistic, although some Marxist scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, have insisted that Marxist philosophy and the philosophy of Marx and Engels are significantly different from one another and that this difference needs recognition. Consisting of a synthesis of Christian theology and Marxist socioeconomic analyses, liberation theology stresses social concern for the poor and advocates for liberation for oppressed peoples. Although he certainly has some important things to say about the nature of religion, he can’t be accepted as the last word on the subject. Objects have only the value of whatever people are ultimately willing to pay; some might pay more for the raw wood, some might pay more for the ugly sculpture. Diese dient nach Marx nur dazu, die Existenz des Menschen durch Träumereien und Trost im Jenseits erträglich zu machen und so das faktische Elend zu verlängern und zu legitimieren. It would be bourgeois narrow-mindedness to forget that the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society. Lernziele der Stunde. 19th-century German philosopher Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, viewed religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" or the "opium of the people". 59, No. Marx and Bruno Bauer were invited to be the chief contributors, and in October 1842 Marx became editor-in-chief and moved from Bonn to Cologne. It was translated from the German original, "Die Religion... ist das Opium des Volkes" and is often rendered as " religion... is the opiate of the masses." Zum theoretischen Hintergrund der MARX´schen Lehre: 1. But they forget that the wonder of all wonders is that the Buddha established Communism so far as the Sangh was concerned without dictatorship. In the Middle Ages, the. However, this attitude relaxed considerably in the late 1970s with the end of the Cultural Revolution. Die Religionskritik von Karl Marx eine kritische Auseinandersetzung Ludwig Feuerbach geboren: 28. Marx joined the “Young Hegelians” (with Bruno Bauer and others) who were not simply disciples, but also critics of Hegel. We do not have to restrict ourselves to the idea that religion is only dependent upon economics and nothing else, such that the actual doctrines of religions are almost irrelevant. Thus, problems in religion are ultimately problems in society. Marx’s wife died on December 2, 1881, and on March 14, 1883, Marx passed away peacefully in his armchair. Examples include Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, an outspoken libertarian communist, Russian revolutionary and territorialist leader Isaac Steinberg and Rabbi Abraham Bik, an American communist activist. 1119-1139, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, 1978 Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Religious persecution in Communist Romania, Freedom of religion in Romania § Socialist Republic of Romania, House Committee on Un-American Activities, "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right", "Opium as Dialectics of Religion: Metaphor, Expression and Protest", "The full story: on Marxism and religion", "About the attitude of the working party toward the religion", Protest for Religious Rights in the USSR: Characteristics and Consequences, Restructuring Albanian Business Education Infrastructure, "IV.II. Sie sind Dinge, die Bedürfnisse befriedigen können, entweder direkt (z. In reality, they are expressions of class interest and class conflict. Karl Marx als Student 1836 -- Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Atheist propaganda returned to a lesser extent during the Khrushchev government and continued in a less strict way during the Brezhnev years. People’s spiritual lives can no longer be assumed to be independent of their material lives. Two important ideas which developed bear mentioning here: First, that economic realities are the determining factor for all human behavior; and second, that all of human history is that of class struggle between those who own things and those who do not own things but must instead work to survive. These two facts created a division of labor and separation of classes based on power and wealth. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. All of the institutions which are prominent in our daily lives — marriage, church, government, arts, etc. While liberation theology was most influential in Latin America, it has also been developed in other parts of the world such as black theology in the United States and South Africa, Palestinian liberation theology, Dalit theology in India and Minjung theology in South Korea. So nennt man die Zeit, als das Handwerk von Fabriken verdrängt wurde, als sich die Agrargesellschaft in eine Industriegesellschaft wandelte. zurück. Marxism includes a complex array of views that cover several different fields of human knowledge and one may easily distinguish between Marxist philosophy, Marxist sociology and Marxist economics. [44] In addition, another criticism is that communism is in itself a religion. In dieser Zeit hatte die Arbeiterschicht mit der Ausbeutung durch die Fabrikbesitzer zu kämpfen. Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, and the least funny of the Marxes. This is not true. B. Nahrung gegen den Hunger oder Kleidung gegen die Kälte) oder indirekt (etwa eine Maschine zur Herstellung von warmen Jacken). After the failure of various revolutionary movements on the continent, Marx was forced to go to London in 1849. In einem berühmten Ausspruch bezeichnet Marx die Religion deshalb als Opium des Volks. [33], From the 1940s through the 1960s, communists, socialists and Islamists sometimes joined forces in opposing colonialism and seeking national independence. The italics are in the original. Had Marx regarded religion as a more serious enemy, he would have devoted more time to it. Denn der Mensch hängt an seinem Leben, und der Tot soll nicht das Ende sein müssen. Thus, his analysis of religion becomes difficult to defend or apply, at least in the simplistic form he describes. Politics, National Symbols and the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral. [8] Tristram Hunt attributes a religious persuasion to Engels.[9]. The idea proposed that in place of the abolition of religion, there should be a meta-religious context in which religions were viewed primarily in terms of the psychological and social effect of ritual, myth and symbolism in an attempt to harness this force for pro-communist aims, both by creating new ritual and symbolism and by re-interpreting existing ritual and symbolism in a socialist context. Karl Marx’ Einleitung zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie aus dem Jahr 1844 ist nicht nur einer der programmatisch wichtigsten und bekanntesten Texte des kommunistischen Theoretikers, sondern auch ein Gründungstext der Religionssoziologie. Im „Kommunistis… [7][31], Contemporary communism, including contemporary Christian communism, owes much to Marxist thought—particularly Marxian economics. 3 (Jul., 2007), pp. Vergleich Marx - Feuerbach. This can be fine, but only if you are also trying to solve the underlying causes of the pain. 15-38, Roland Boer in International Socialism. (geändert am 21.12.2017) Bevor Karl Marx 1867 sein Hauptwerk „Das Kapital“ veröffentlichte, befasste er sich mit weitaus philosophischeren, und weniger ökonomischen Themen. It should be noted that through most of his life, Marx did not work alone—he had the help of Friedrich Engels who had, on his own, developed a very similar theory of economic determinism. [27] This relatively favorable attitude towards the church continued until the death of Patriarch Justinian of Romania in 1977, at which point the state began a new anti-church campaign, engaging in urban renewal projects that entailed the destruction of churches. Marx wrote and studied constantly, but ill-health prevented him from completing the last two volumes of Capital (which Engels subsequently put together from Marx’s notes). Religion kann von den einzelnen gebraucht werden als Beruhigung, Opium, als Flucht aus der Wirklichkeit. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. [24], During its Socialist era, the Romanian government exerted significant control over the Orthodox Church and closely monitored religious activity, as well as promoting atheism among the population. Unterdrücker und Unterdrückte stehen stets in einem Gegensatz zueinander, der (mal offen, mal versteckt) in einem Klassenkampf ausgetragen wird. Kritik an Marx. In the beginning, people worked together in unity, and it wasn’t so bad. Diese Einleitung hat er 1844 in der zusammen mit Arnold Ruge herausgegebenen Zeitschrift Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher veröffentlicht. [25] Dissident priests were censured, arrested, deported, and/or defrocked, but the Orthodox Church as a whole acquiesced to the government's demands and received support from it. Marx came from a Jewish background, but his father converted to Lutheranism to avoid losing his work as a lawyer in anti-Semitic Prussia. Before the 18th century, most answers were framed in purely theological and religious terms, assuming the truth of Christian revelations and proceeding from there. e 19th-century German philosopher Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, viewed religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" or the " opium of the people ". Marx is not entirely without sympathy: people are in distress and religion does provide solace, just as people who are physically injured receive relief from opiate-based drugs. The two were of like mind and worked exceptionally well together—Marx was the better philosopher while Engels was the better communicator. [21] This policy was mainly applied and felt within the borders of the present Albanian state, producing a nonreligious majority in the population. Martin Luther preached the ability of each individual to interpret the Bible but sided with aristocratic rulers and against peasants who fought against economic and social oppression. As interesting and insightful as Marx’s analysis and critiques are, they are not without their problems—historical and economic. This emphasis on action rather than mere philosophical musings is a crucial point in Marx’s program. [citation needed] However, the Communist Party of China still remains explicitly atheist and religion is heavily regulated, with only specific state-operated churches, mosques and temples being allowed for worship. [citation needed], In contrast with the brutal repression of the sangha undertaken in Cambodia, the Communist government of Laos has not sought to oppose or suppress Buddhism in Laos to any great degree, rather since the early days of the Pathet Lao communist officials have sought to use the influence and respect afforded to Buddhist clergy to achieve political goals while discouraging religious practices seen as detrimental to Marxist aims. Even worse, this “drug” is being administered by the oppressors who are responsible for the pain and suffering. But the reality is just the opposite. Marx’s labor theory of value and concept of surplus value as driving exploitation in capitalism are the fundamental underpinning upon which all of the rest of his ideas are based. For Karl Marx, the basic determining factor of human history is economics. Such elements include, for example, no clergy and themes that relate to mutualism, libertarian socialism and democratic confederalism. As Marx wrote, “The religious world is but the reflex of the real world.”. 2 (Mar., 2007), pp. Second, religion negates all that is dignified in a human being by rendering them servile and more amenable to accepting the status quo. This, in turn, created the social conflict which drives society. The owner of the factory did nothing to earn this, but exploits it nevertheless and keeps the difference as profit. Secularism Vs Secularization: What's the Difference? In The Attitude of the Workers’ Party to Religion, Lenin wrote: Religion is the opium of the people: this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion.