Marx's critique of religion challenges Christians for a vision of man that is more deeply rooted in reality. It is in connection with Marx's criticism of religion, especially as an ally of the establishment, that Bishop Paulose brings in the theology of.
Encounter in Humanization: Insights for Christian-Marxist Dialogue and
Marx and Bonhoeffer on Religion
Thus, the aim of Marx's critique of religion is the affirmation of human creativity and autonomy. It was this acknowledgment of the growing world that led Bonhoeffer to criticize religion.
The Continuity of Marx’s Thought
The propertied class and the class of the proletariat exhibit the same human self-alienation. It is commonly known as the Grundrisse, obviously from the first word of the German title.
Influence of Hegel and Feuerbach on Marx
The true human view is the reverse of the religious view, then. In the essence of Christianity there is another indication of a theory of the origin of religion.
Marx’s Critique of Religion
Prometheus' profession is the service of human beings against Hermes' service of the gods. In chapter 3 we have already discussed particular aspects of the philosophies of Hegel and Feuerbach, which had a direct influence on Marx's critique of religion. Religion is described as an expression of worldly concern, as "the sigh of the oppressed creature."
34; God is an inexpressible sigh, which lies in the depths of the heart." However, religion is at the same time also a protest against this need. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. criticism of religion is therefore in embryo the criticism of the vale or woe, the halo of which is religion.
Thus we can say that Marx, by his sense of injustice found in society, was on the side of the angels. The autonomy of the human person - that was the goal Marx wanted to achieve through his critique of religion.
Transcendence According to Marx
The primary goal of Marx's critique of religion and his atheistic position is the realization of the positive factor of transcendence. According to Marx, transcendence means not only abolishing the dehumanizing conditions of human life, but also preserving the true essence of the human person and shaping the person's own destiny by going beyond what is given. By transcendence, Marx means the movement from the living and humanly experienced present to the future.
By humanism, Marx means the doctrine that affirms the worth and dignity of man. Religion and state are only partial expressions of the one fundamental alienation of man from nature, and will inevitably disappear with their cause. We will illustrate Marx's concept of transcendence through one of the leading Marxist thinkers of our time.
In other words, the need Garaudy speaks of is future-oriented -- it is the demand for an ever-fuller realization of people's potential. Here we have a qualitative leap, a real transcendence, a transcendence in the strict etymological sense of the word.
Marx’s Critique of Religion as Challenge to Christianity
The theological relativity of atheism directs us to the foundations of religious life. Although Christianity is directed to the "beyond," it must nevertheless influence our actions in the realm of "here below." It encourages Christians to live out the consequences of a man made in the image of God who became incarnate.
Marx's critique of religion is in many ways similar to that of the Old Testament prophets. Theology as self-examination on the part of the church will have to distinguish what is valid in Marx's critique of religion from what is outside. Seen in this light, Marx's critique of religion may very well be a "religious critique" of the world.
Therefore, insofar as Marx's criticism of religion concerns the "truth of man", it remains in the realm of "religion criticism", since religion proclaims the truth of man and of the world. Among the key figures in this school of thought, who took Marx's criticism of religion seriously, are: Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, Trans.
Bonhoeffer’s Concept of
Encounter in Humanization: Insights for Christian-Marxist Dialogue and for Christian-Marxist Dialogue and Cooperation by Paulose Mar Paulose. Bishop Paulose Mar Paulsoe prefers to call himself a "secular theologian" because he communicates the Christian faith in secular language.
34;World Come of Age"
Non-Religious Interpretation
Even in his first days in prison, Bonhoeffer expressed growing intolerance towards the 'religious'. Bonhoeffer's non-religious interpretation is not only about the hermeneutical question, but about the question of the very existence of the church. As Clifford Green has pointed out: "From the center of life, under the rule of the servant Christ, for the world: this is the way of the non-religious interpretation."23.
Bonhoeffer's Christological interpretation of the Old Testament appears in his lecture delivered in the winter semester 1932-33 at the University of Berlin. 34;From the beginning the world was placed in the sign of the resurrection of Christ from the dead." A non-religious interpretation would call people to participate in the suffering of God in his life of the world,"" .
The problem of a non-religious interpretation is not just a hermeneutical problem, but concerns the very existence of the Church itself. He was a bishop in the Chaldean Syrian Church in Kerala, India and was president of the World Student Christian Federation.
Religionless Christianity
34; before God" in a world without a hypothesis about God and with the help of a "secret discipline" (which Hamilton barely mentions and Altizer interprets as the need for silence). The God who lets us live in a world without a working hypothesis of God is God, before by which we stand constantly. In the body of Jesus Christ, God took upon himself the sin of the whole world and carried it.
He views each of these qualities as important characteristics of the Christian who lives a holy life before God in the world. The third quality is that of sharing with God in His sufferings in the world. 'Secret discipline' appears only twice in the prison letters; it was not as superficial to Bonhoeffer as the uncommon sentence might make.
The deep meaning inherent in the phrase "secret discipline" can be better understood in the light of the Price of Discipleship. Unless a Christian has the secret discipline as a prerequisite for holy worldliness and responsible action, all distinction between being in the world and being of the world disappears.
Transcendence According To Bonhoeffer
Having looked at the understanding of transcendence in the minds of secular thinkers and contemporary theologians, we will now examine Bonhoeffer's own treatment of the subject. For Bonhoeffer, Christology is a doctrine of God as well as of the humanity of Jesus, because Jesus Christ is God present in the humanity of Jesus. Christ means that God is to be found in the center of the world and nowhere else.
34; It is now essential to the real concept of the secular that it will always be seen in the movement of being accepted and becoming accepted by God in Christ."12 The transcendence of God must be understood through Bonhoeffer's lifelong and characteristic metaphor. The 'other side' of God is not only God-in-the-world revealed in Jesus, it is God-and-the-world reconciled in Jesus, it is rather an interpretation of God's transcendence in terms of the proclamation that Jesus the Christ.
To participate in the being of Jesus is to be free, and so transcendence is experienced in human life as liberation. The new life that is participation in transcendence is experienced primarily as helplessness and suffering.
Bonhoefferian Theology as Challenge to Marxism
According to Bonhoeffer, the message of the Gospel enables the Christian to be fully in the world, but not of it. Thus, the service of the Church is both an internal renewal and a mission in the world. The climax of the biblical story is not the salvation of individuals to some spiritual heaven - it is the renewal of God's.
Bonhoeffer is not talking about a metaphysical concept of God but the God who is interested in the affairs of the world, not a God of. In this way, the future that the Christian looks forward to is not just an extension of the present; it is qualitatively different. The real humanity of the person is based solely in the person's dependence on God and His will.
This means seeing the world in the hands of the savior and being concerned about its peace, its prosperity and its solidarity in love. The meaning of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is that God and the world can no longer be separated.
A Call For Dialogue
This correction also served to present the Church with a new understanding of herself and the autonomous modern world, and reminded us what it means to be a Christian in a coming-of-age world. Believing in one's own beliefs does not necessarily involve judging the beliefs of others. The Church's renewed understanding of herself and the world allows her to enter into dialogue with everyone without abandoning her "claim to exclusivity".
Even in the so-called Christian countries of the West, the serious impact of the current secularization trend has placed the church in a minority situation. Pope John XXIII's encyclical, Pacem in Terris, has taken the question of the church's dialogue with the world into consideration.5 The Council established the Secretariat for Non-Believers, which seeks to engage in dialogue with all forms of atheism. The church's newfound openness has broken the shackles of the social order of Marx's time.
In 1967, the Sociological Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and the Paulus-Gesellschaft (an organization of theologians and scientists) invited two hundred Marxist and Christian philosophers, scientists and theologians to a dialogue in Marianbad (Czechoslovakia). These are just some of the dialogues that took place in the 1960s between Marxists and.
