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ruling class. Because a belief in the
hereafter serves as a comfort to
the poor and the oppressed, Marx
described religion as “the opium of
the people.” Russian revolutionary
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin said it is
“spiritual gin”: religion deadens the
harsh realities of working-class life,
and through it people are drugged
into accepting their lowly positions
in return for a better afterlife. In
effect, religion can be understood
as a potent form of social control
that keeps the poor in their place
and obstructs social change.
Religion and radicalism
Marx does not overlook the fact that
Christianity is a religion that grew
out of oppression, and that it has
sustained and comforted those
who are miserable and without
hope. Religious suffering is both
an “expression of real suffering and
a protest against real suffering”—
it is the “sigh” of oppressed people,
which suggests that religion has a
radical or potentially revolutionary
aspect. In 17th-century England,
for example, Puritanism led
to the execution of a king and
the establishment of a republic.
However, Marx says that religion
is the “illusory happiness ofKARL MARX
the people” when the situation
demands their real happiness:
“To call on them to give up their
illusions about their condition is to
call on them to give up a condition
that requires illusions.” The task of
history and philosophy, he declares,
is “to unmask self-estrangement in
its unholy forms once the holy form
of human self-estrangement has
been unmasked.”
Marx agreed with German
sociologist Max Weber’s premise
that Protestantism had played a
big role in establishing capitalism
because it better satisfied the
commercial needs of 16th-century
merchants and later industrialists.
Hard work accompanied by reward
was at the heart of Protestant
philosophy, and Calvinists in
particular looked upon material
success as a sign of God’s favor.
Marx describes the Reformation
as Germany’s revolutionary past—
a revolution that began in the brain
of a monk, as he puts it. Luther,
he says, “overcame bondage out
of devotion by replacing it with
bondage out of conviction”; Luther
turned priests into laymen because
he turned laymen into priests. In
Marx’s view, Protestantism didMarx argues that religion is a belief
system that enables the ruling class
to maintain power in the present by
promising the working class that things
will be better in the hereafter. The poor
find solace in moral teachings because,
ultimately, they will reap a reward for
their suffering; social change is averted
because religion stabilizes society and
upholds the status quo.
Feminism and religion
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
19th-century US author of The
Woman’s Bible, said the Word
of God was actually that of a
man and was used to subjugate
women. Feminist theories
of religion since then have
generally echoed this theme of
sexism and gender inequality.
Women tend to participate
more than men in religious
observation, but they are usually
marginalized and discriminated
against, with fewer rights and
heavier punishments. Egyptianwriter Nawal El Saadawi
says religion may be used to
oppress women, but the cause
is patriarchal forms of society,
which has reshaped religion.
Many Muslim women use their
religion and dress to symbolize
their liberation, notes British
sociologist Linda Woodhead.
Within some religions, the
position of women is changing
significantly; since the Church
of England permitted female
ordination in 1992, women now
make up one in five of the clergy.The hereafter
The here and now