Koha online

Karl Marx was one of the least original thinkers in the history of the human race. A follower of the obscure Hegel, Marx and other ‘Young Hegelians’ adopted Feuerbach’s critique of Hegel which was based on the mistaken notion that Western philosophy was superior to that of the East and based on reason. He argued Hegel’s philosophy was the culminating point of all speculative-systematic philosophy. Hegel’s Absolute Idea was assumed and, as with all previous philosophers, presented as a new philosophy without providing a critical assessment. ‘The only philosophy that proceeds from no presuppositions is one that possesses the courage and freedom to doubt itself, that produces itself out of its antithesis’. According to Feuerbach’s thinking, ‘Philosophy is the science of reality in its truth and reality’ founded on nature which recognises rational not fantastic freedom. This provided Marx with his naturalism and his atheistic convictions which were already in place owing to his liberal anti-religious ideas. It also provided Marx and his successors with the invective which has characterised its communication strategy ever since.
Hegel’s followers split into Left and Right factions, the latter arguing that the dialectic of history had come to an end and was fulfilled in the Prussian State. The former sensed a contradiction between the ‘Spirit’ which overcame everything opposed to Freedom and Reason and the practical limitations of Prussian autocracy. David Strauss’s ‘The Life of Jesus’ had a major impact as it represented a development in Protestant theology which Marx adopted in his early manuscripts which are effectively a secular version of the religious theology of Christianity. Some of this arose from the influence of Bruno Bauer who saw religion as a form of alienation, arguing Christianity was a transitional stage on the path to self-consciousness. Many French Socialists could not abide the Germans’ atheism, claiming that communism was Christianity in practice. As the nineteenth century progressed Christian Churches became increasingly conservative and hostile towards socialism’s materialist metaphysic throughout Europe. Britain was largely unaffected because of its long tradition of religious pluralism, empiricism and a native distrust of ideological thought.
Marxism developed its own orthodoxy based on the idea that it is a science, a term adopted by Marx because Owen and other socialist practitioners had provided practical examples of socialism in action, discovered it did not work but was essentially associated exclusively with the word socialism. Marx ignored practice in favour of theory based on materialism which reduced theory to statements about the movement of matter. This enabled him to dismiss religion as ‘an instrument of class rule, an ideological bulwark of the ruling class’. The Marxist metaphor of base and superstructure allowed him to place religion at the point furthest away from the class struggle he claimed was the dynamic of all history. As McClellan noted, ‘It is this approach which explains why so much Marxist writing on religion is so bad’. They are mere repetitions of Feuerbach. Engels postulated a correlation between Darwin’s discovery of the law of organic development and Marx’s discovery of the law of the development of human nature. Marx’s theory provided no understanding of human nature but prevented any understanding of the human condition.
McLellan noted that contemporary intellectual life tends to be compartmentalised, a division of labour which arose during the Enlightenment. Historically this occured in Christendom once Luther challenged the Roman Catholic Church and placed his faith firmly in the other worldliness of the gospel’s message of salvation and reconciliation with God. Marxists were positively hostile to Christianity and promoters of atheism, notwithstanding Stalin’s cynical use of it as part of his Great Patriotic War propaganda. The postwar picture suggested a reconciliation between progressive Communists and left-wing Christians influence by Roger Garaudy who later converted to Islam which rather demonstrated his disordered personality. Althusser argued that Christian values could only be realised through Communist action. While recognising that all philosophy is ideological Althusser never came to terms with reality by associating theory with facts. Mentally deranged he murdered his wife claiming it to be an act of love. Ironically, in typical ruling class fashion, prominent philosophers defended his claim. However, like Marx he was a fraud, having never read many of Marx’s works before claiming to interpret them. The Marxist Gerald Cohen correctly identified it as ‘bull’ - the edited version!
Marx declared that what became known as historical materialism (that the nature of individuals and society ultimately depended on the material conditions which determined their production) was empirical which he sought to prove by identifying religion in different historical conditions. In this respect he shifted his position from that of general human reflection to one of ideological expression as a means of the ruling classes earning their livelihood. Christianity had no history but had returned to its Jewish origins. He contrasted what he called ‘the religious production of fancies’ with the ‘real production of the means of existence’. This was a production of Marx’s own limited imagination. Engels argued that English socialists were opposed to Christianity whereas they tried to replaced it with the mistaken notion that humanity could reach perfection without it and that progress was inevitable. Both proved to be chimeras. Neither Marx nor Engels had the intelligence to apply different historical contexts to Christianity and Christendom but ignored the Christian faith in favour of polemical diatribes and the belief that religion would disappear under Communism.
Engels was brought up in a Pietist environment.but abandoned it when confronted with hard choices and opted to adopt Strauss’s view of the historical Jesus while seeing Christianity as an early form of communism and religion as a primitive form of materialism. Christianity was an abstraction but, rather than provide a critique of such abstractions or the tendency of all human organisations to ideological divisions, Engels condemned everything. The result is a woolly interpretation of reality which is itself unreal. McLellan concludes religion will outlast Marxism. Five Star book for the open-minded which means Marxists will neither read nor understand it.