Does religious belief necessarily mean
servitude? On Max Stirner and the
hardened heart
Hugo Strandberg
Åbo Akademi University, Finland
How to cite this book chapter:
Strandberg, H. 2017. Does religious belief necessarily mean servitude?
On Max Stirner and the hardened heart. In: Christoyannopoulos, A. and
Adams, M. S. (eds.) Essays in Anarchism and Religion: Volume 1. Pp. 283–307.
Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/
bak.h. License: CC-BY
A common view of morality and religion is that they demand
self-denial. The starting point is me in isolation, to which we
then ought to add a moral concern which restricts my doings, or,
according to the self-professed egoist, ought not to add. The moral
difficulty is hence about forcing oneself to renounce the things one
wants, even parts of oneself. Religious belief means servitude, and
we have to choose between it and freedom. In this chapter, the intri-
cacies of this picture of morality and religion are critically discussed.
In this discussion, Max Stirner is used as the main interlocutor.
Another understanding of morality and religion is contrasted to the
egoist one, a contrasting understanding in which it is egoism that is
the result of self-denial: the egoist must harden his or her heart, that
is, must renounce love. According to this contrasting understanding,
religious belief is thus positively related to freedom.In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan says: “Better to reign in
Hell, than serve in Heav’n.”^1 And “Here at last / We shall be
free”.^2 Or as the anarchist would say: “no gods, no masters”.^3
According to this well-known anarchist slogan, all servitude
should be rejected.^4 That slogan suggests that anarchism does not
only affect the political realm narrowly understood, but also has
a religious import: all gods should be eliminated too, not only all
earthly masters. Religious faith means servitude and is therefore
antithetical to freedom.
Such a general rejection of religion can be easily countered
by pointing out that it is only possible to claim that religious