Zhu Peili: The Value and Significance of the Young Marx's Critique of Religion
Marx’s profound insight into capitalist industrial civilization and his scientific demonstration of the "five social formations" represent a dialectical unity of the critique of the real world and the construction of a future society. A critical logic of thought and mode of linguistic expression constitute the unique style through which Marx constructed his academic theory. Regarding Marx’s critical style, the American scholar Immanuel Wallerstein once remarked: "Marxism, as a critique of the capitalist world-economic system, is a set of critical discourses that inspire sincere social forces to oppose the existing world system—the deeply popular Marxian mode of expression." [1] The young Marx’s thought on the critique of religion was the starting point and prerequisite for his theory of social critique, possessing profound value significance in the generative process of Marxist theory.
I. The Origin of the Young Marx’s Critique of Religion
The young Marx’s attention to and reflection on the issue of religion was by no means an accidental judgment, but rather originated from a specific historical background and ideological-cultural source. His attitude toward religion underwent a process from faith to skepticism and then to critique. European civilization is a typical Christian civilization; a thick religious culture has followed the development of Western philosophy like a shadow. The young Marx lived in a Germany where religious mysticism was "married" to feudal monarchical autocracy. Religious faith became a spiritual means for the Prussian autocratic government to maintain its rule and to numb and control the masses. The truth and happiness of the "world beyond," which religious theology focused on, became a helpless spiritual consolation for the exploited. Religious faith manifested a powerful controlling force in both political and social life.
The accumulation and infiltration of religious culture naturally deeply influenced Marx during his youth, which is directly reflected in his secondary school essays on religious issues. In one of his secondary school essays, "The Union of the Faithful with Christ according to John 15:1–14, Its Ground and Essence, Its Absolute Necessity, and Its Effects," Marx still adhered to the idea that Christianity inspires the perfection of human nature and moral elevation. He believed that God signified the supreme ethical entity and ideal moral state, placing hope for "God's salvation" regarding the sufferings and torments of earthly life. [2] In another secondary school essay, "Reflections of a Young Man on the Choice of a Profession," Marx took divine revelation as the basis for a young person to establish lofty moral ideals. From this, we can see that the young Marx’s attitude toward religion was a moralized cognitive mode of ethical concern; the pursuit of sublime values became the vessel and destination of Marx’s religious sentiment. Rather than a belief in religion, it was more a belief in morality.
However, Marx’s pursuit of the values of sublimity and freedom had almost no possibility of realization in the dark political reality of Germany at that time. Against the historical background of the vigorous development of the capitalist economic and political systems in Britain and France, the reality in Germany was that religion defended feudal autocracy, and the illusions of the world beyond stifled the passion to "change the world." In sharp contrast to Germany’s conservative backwardness was the progress and leaps made in the realm of German speculative philosophy. Within the field of German philosophy, which served as the spirit of the times [1], the concept of the modern state had already far surpassed the backward German state system of that period. Simultaneously, Enlightenment thinkers, who had a profound influence on society, believed that only by relying on science and reason could ignorance be expelled, whereas religion was a debasement and repression of human nature. Consequently, the rational critique of religion became the dominant theme of demonstration in the field of philosophy.
The severe "anachronism" between German theory and reality indicated that the only possibility for Germany’s progressive cause lay in relying on "philosophy"—this "weapon of critique." [2] Thus, following the ethical world conforming to spiritual reason demonstrated by Hegel's system of Absolute Spirit philosophy, the Young Hegelians turned toward the philosophy of "self-consciousness." They extolled the "Self," criticized everything, and everywhere substituted religious concepts for all else. They declared that all concepts—politics, law, morality—belonged to the sphere of religious theology and regarded religion as the source of evil and "the true shackles of man." The critique of religion was a typical characteristic of the era and a historical task of that time. Marx’s doctoral dissertation used "self-consciousness" as a rational weapon to criticize the opposition between religion and human freedom. Building upon the Enlightenment thinkers and the Young Hegelians, Marx inherited and then transcended Feuerbach to complete a thorough and realistic critique based on the rational critique of religion. His thoughts on the critique of religion are concentrated in the Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, where Marx soberly realized that the critique of religion is the prerequisite of all other critiques.
II. The Theoretical Value of the Young Marx’s Critique of Religion: Inheritance and Transcendence
In the evolution of the young Marx’s thought on the critique of religion, Feuerbach’s rational critique of religion had a particularly profound influence on him. Feuerbach abandoned the notion of eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers who simplistically dismissed religion as a case of "a fool meeting a swindler." Within his logical framework of materialism and humanism, he understood religion as the self-alienation of man and the loss of his free nature. Regarding the origin of religion, Feuerbach maintained a position of natural materialism, believing that religion is the result of humanity using the imagination to endow natural objects and laws with personalized power and subsequently worshipping them. Feuerbach pointed out that the mystery and falsehood of religion arise from the lack of independence and the state of dependence in the relationship between man and nature; man's sense of dependence is the foundation upon which religion arises. In natural religion, man indirectly deifies his own spirit through tangible objects, whereas in spiritual religion, man's spirit directly deifies itself without any mediation.
Carrying the banner of the Enlightenment spirit, Feuerbach challenged the authority of the "divine creation" theory. He clearly pointed out that religion is the realization of the essence of man in fantasy and falsehood; the absolute spiritual entity in religion—God—is precisely the incarnation of human spirit and reason. "Man objectifies his own essence and then again makes himself an object to this objectified essence converted into a subject, a person; . . . this is the secret of religion." [3] Feuerbach’s unmasking of religion showed that it was not God who created man in His own image, but rather man who created God in his own image. Religion is "the first, but indirect, self-consciousness of man." [4] The reason man worships an object as something sacred is solely because the object is nothing other than the basis for maintaining human existence. In religion, the value man affirms in God is, in fact, the affirmation of his own value; that is, man’s love for God is precisely man’s love for himself. Therefore, after criticizing the false essence of religion, Feuerbach advocated replacing the God of religion with a "religion of love," using human will and spirit to achieve the pursuit of happiness. It is in this sense that Feuerbach’s critique of religion "does not end in the destruction of the actual religious piety of man, nor does it strive for such destruction." [5]
Feuerbach’s exposure of the question of the essence of God brought German philosophy back from the heavens to the human world, regarding religion as "the self-consciousness and self-feeling of man who has either not yet won through to himself or has already lost himself again." [6] This was his vital historical achievement in the critique of religion. However, based on a humanistic ethical postulate, Feuerbach reduced man to an abstract rather than a real individual. By using the opposition between God and man to highlight the opposition between the religious world and the secular world—"in order that God may be rich, man must be poor; that God may be all, man must be nothing" [7]—this polar opposition model possessed profound significance for ideological enlightenment in overturning divine authority and returning to human dignity. However, it ignored the significance of the self-cleavage and contradictory movement of secular society itself in the generation of religion. This is precisely why Feuerbach’s critique of religion ultimately became limited and abstract.
"Marx inherited the materialist tradition of Feuerbach’s critique of religion, but the young Marx placed greater value on the critical tension and profundity of his humanistic alienation logic." [8] His critique of religion completely overturned religious mysticism, adhered to natural materialism, and demonstrated that religion arises from the fantasy regarding the reality of the human essence; any illusion in the kingdom of heaven is a distorted reflection of man himself. Starting from the essence of man, Marx exposed the secular foundation behind transcendental religion: "Man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man, the state, society. This state, this society, produce religion, an inverted world-consciousness, because they are an inverted world." [9] The essence of man is not an abstract concept existing in the mind, but a concrete existence within the real state and society. The mystery and falsehood of religion come from the world of human life—a world full of oppression, exploitation, and slavery, an "inverted" world. This "inversion" is relative to the ethical entity at the level of how things ought to be—the rational state. Marx said that religion is the "general theory" of this "inverted world"; "Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world." [10] It is precisely the "inverted world" that produces religion as this "inverted world-consciousness." In this way, Marx’s critique of religion necessarily moved toward the depth of social critique.
The thoroughness of the young Marx’s critique of religion lies in completing the shift from the critique of the "holy form of human self-alienation" to the critique of "self-alienation in its unholy forms," and from the rational critique of religion to the social critique of religion, transforming the critique of religion into a critique of the vale of tears. "The critique of heaven turns into the critique of the earth, the critique of religion into the critique of law, and the critique of theology into the critique of politics." [10] The epochal value and transcendence of the young Marx’s critique of religion lie in the fact that while launching a critique of the "copy," he simultaneously linked it to German social reality to launch a critique of the "original." He continued and deepened the critique of religion through the critique of social reality; otherwise, the critique of religion would regress into an illusory, rootless critique. Therefore, the young Marx’s critique of religion was the starting point of his social critique, and social critique was the thorough completion of his critique of religion.
III. The Value Aspiration of the Young Marx’s Critique of Religion: Human Emancipation
The young Marx’s critique of religion denied any form of authority, completely overturned the ontological logic of "Absolute Spirit" and eternal laws, directly touched the "center of the problems" of society at that time, and realized the realistic turn of the era's mission and the philosophical task. Marx believed that illusory religion is the opposition to and rebellion against free human nature and the real state and society. Therefore, the abolition of illusory happiness in the religious world is not the abolition of happiness itself, but rather the realization of real happiness in the world of life. The critique of religion must not only discard the "truth of the world beyond" and pluck the "imaginary flowers" from the chain, but even more so establish the "truth of this world." This indicates that Marx's critique of religion was permeated with concern for the world of human existence. Marx's assertion that "man is the highest essence for man" contains "the categorical imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, forsaken, despicable being." [11] In its conclusion, the young Marx's critique of religion transcended the "actualized reason" [3] of Hegel's philosophy of the state and philosophy of right, and transcended Feuerbach's establishment of the religion of "love," moving instead toward a brand-new path of criticizing German society.
The value aspiration of the young Marx’s critique of religion lay in establishing a world that truly belongs to man, pursuing human emancipation, so that man no longer thinks, acts, and changes the world based on religious fantasies, but based on real intellect. Human emancipation—that is, the thorough emancipation of man—is the prerequisite and condition for realizing the free essence and real happiness of man. Regarding this, Marx once criticized Bruno Bauer for regarding the Jews’ abandonment of religion as the path to human and political emancipation. Marx emphasized that the existence of religion is merely the manifestation of political oppression, not its cause; the question of the relation of political emancipation to religion has become the question of the relation of political emancipation to human emancipation. Only by achieving human emancipation can religion truly be eliminated and political emancipation be thoroughly realized.
In the Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Marx for the first time clearly proposed the significance of the awakening of subject consciousness and the self-awareness of subject power for human emancipation. The radical transformation of German speculative philosophy, and consequently of German civil society, requires "practice at the height of principle." [11]
This practice must not only raise Germany to the level of capitalist countries but also to the height and level of the proletarian revolution that capitalist countries are about to reach. Such practice is human liberation, and the subjective force it relies upon is the proletariat. This force "cannot emancipate itself without emancipating itself from all other spheres of society and thereby emancipating these other spheres; it is, in a word, a sphere which is the total loss of humanity and which can only redeem itself by a total redemption of humanity." [15] This particular subjective force is the proletariat, which has completely lost the free essence of being human. In Germany, it seems there is no other class besides the proletariat that can represent universal suffering; the German proletariat is a class in radical chains. Precisely because of the total loss of humanity, it can become the force for the radical liberation of humanity: "I am nothing and I should be everything." [16] "In France, it is enough that one should be something in order to wish to be everything. In Germany, one must be nothing if one is not to renounce everything." [17] Thus, the liberation of the proletariat signifies the abolition of class antagonism and the dissolution of all estates [N1]. The requirement of the proletariat to negate the principle of private property actually represents the interests and principles of society; therefore, the liberation of the proletariat is simultaneously the liberation of humanity.
Based on the analysis of religious criticism, the young Marx clarified the tension between religion and philosophy: the falsity of religion contrasts with the value of truth, while philosophy seeks truth and the sublime by appealing to reason. The cause of the proletariat striving for human liberation likewise requires philosophy as a spiritual weapon. The combination of philosophy and the proletariat is the combination of a spiritual weapon and a material weapon: "As philosophy finds its material weapon in the proletariat, so the proletariat finds its spiritual weapon in philosophy." [15] Philosophy is the "head" of human liberation, and the proletariat is its "heart." The "philosophy" here differs from speculative philosophy [N2] detached from reality; rather, it is a critical philosophy capable of manifesting material force. "Philosophy cannot be realized without the abolition of the proletariat, and the proletariat cannot be abolished without philosophy being made a reality." [18] After concluding the critique of religion, Marx’s radical philosophical critique necessarily pointed toward the old system and the old world; it was precisely in the process of criticizing the old world that Marx discovered the new world. As the young Marx’s social insight and philosophical critique deepened, and as the internal contradictions of the capitalist mode of production unfolded, the logic of his social critique delved into the realm of social economy, yet the revolutionary goal of human liberation never changed. In short, the young Marx’s religious criticism provided an important value reference and argumentative starting point for Marx's scientific theory of human liberation.
IV. The Contemporary Value of the Young Marx's Religious Criticism
The contemporary world has undergone vast changes [N3] compared to the specific history of the young Marx’s religious criticism, yet the intellectual content and humanistic concern of his critique still pierce through history with profound significance, demonstrating the truth-value of Marxist theory. To a certain extent, it can be said that modern society’s worship of commodities has become a religious-style adoration and faith stripped of its theological shell; commodity fetishism is the manifestation of the global crisis of spiritual faith in the current era. The superficial prosperity and affluence of modern society conceal and obscure the human pursuit of freedom, value, and truth. The materialistic masses would rather exchange external material interests for spiritual degradation, thereby losing the pursuit of value-rationality [N4]. Objects that originally belonged to the products of human labor have grandly become alien, mysterious forces that dominate and govern the spiritual world of man. What derives from "material dependence" [N5] is the rule and enslavement of man by things, leaving people’s lives in a state of emptiness, boredom, trepidation, and anxiety.
Religion originated from primitive nature worship, passed through the idol worship of absolute spiritual entities and the personalized rule and enslavement by alien things, and is ultimately dissolved in the human liberation movement in which the proletariat creates a new world. The secularization of theological issues—seeking the roots of religion in the contradictory movements of secular society—is where the realism of the young Marx's religious criticism lies. It also serves as an existential explanation for the new "religion" and "mythology" of object-worship into which modern civilization has fallen after breaking free from nature worship. The young Marx realized that although religion is a false and prejudiced "inverted world-consciousness," because this "inverted consciousness" is rooted in an "inverted world," it is difficult to simply exclude or reject it from the consciousness of the people. Religion arises from an inverted world of life; the power to eliminate religion likewise exists in the real material world.
As an expression of false consciousness, religion is not something that can be annihilated through spiritual critique by "dissolving it in 'self-consciousness' or transforming it into 'specters,' 'ghosts,' 'fantasies,' etc., but only by the practical overthrow of the real social relations from which these idealistic humbug originated." [19] The historical condition for the withering away of religion lies in the elimination of private property and the social division of labor. As long as exploitation, oppression, fear, and mystery exist in social life, various forms of religious worship and falsehood will inevitably exist. Much like the withering away of religion, the source of power to escape modern commodity fetishism likewise resides in a perfect and rational economic and social structure. Destroying irrational social systems and abolishing private property and the social division of labor is the ultimate solution. The salvation of the modern crisis of spiritual faith lies in the establishment of a new mode of production. The power of human self-affirmation resides in the social practice of transforming the world. In this process, social production becomes an "association of free individuals," and the well-rounded and free development of man becomes a reality. Religious falsehoods and fantasies will no longer exist, and the clarity and independence of the human spiritual world will become possible.