had to practice negation in the dialectics, the critique, always on themselves.
Outside the Eastern European republics negation in the dialectics was valid
only in the interest of expansion. The so-called dialectical materialism in
Eastern Europe only glorified its own state. This dialectical materialism was
the more domineering, the worse the domestic situation became. In the 1950s
this dialectical materialism was almost already called realism. The critical
theorists spoke about red fascism. In Eastern Europe the word positivism
was taboo only because of Lenin’s main book on Materialism and Emperio-
Criticism(Horkheimer 1990). According to Horkheimer, for Moscow as well
as for New York, it was valid that the thought could not oppose to what
existed, a totally Other. In the critical theory’s longing for the totally Other,
which separates it most sharply and deeply from all forms of positivism, the
faith in the God of all three Abrahamic religions is concretely superseded:
i.e., not only criticized, demythologized and de-anthropomorphized, but also
preserved, elevated and fulfilled (Küng 1991; 1994; 2004).
Positive Religion
In spite of the fact that, for Horkheimer, secular positivism was utterly being
opposed to genuine religion and theology, he observed, nevertheless, like the
young Hegel had done before, how Christianity became positive and even
positivistic: in the transition from Jesus of Nazareth and the early Jesuanic
movements of the Primordial Christian Apocalyptic Paradigm to the Old
Church Hellenistic Constellation, and to the Medieval Roman Catholic Model,
and to the Reformation-Protestant Paradigm (Hegel 1986; Bloch and Reif 1978;
Küng 1994). That happened as Christianity developed its cognitive, norma-
tive and expressive aspects and objectivated its interpretation of reality and
its orientation of action. There is not only a secular, but also a religious and
theological positivism. According to Horkheimer, the Jew Jesus of Nazareth
died for all human beings. He could not keep himself back for himself, miserly
and meanly. He belonged to all that suffered. However, so Horkheimer argued,
the Greek and Roman Church fathers made of Jesus’ suffering and death a
positive religion. Rabbi Jesus announced the immediate arrival of the Kingdom
of heaven, and all that came in the long run was the Church.
Spiritual Energies
Horkheimer had to admit, that if this transformation of Jesus’ life and suf-
fering into a positive religion had not happened, he would probably have
76 • Rudolf J. Siebert