This study fundamentally departs from conventional approaches
to the "communist-religious" problematic. On the one hand, we reject
the orthodox historical materialist denial that communism involves
the positive germination of religious practices of any form whatsoever.
On the other hand, we also dismiss the "utopian" attempt to convert
Marx's theory of this era into a secular extension of Judeo-Christian
eschatological principles. Thus, though our central thesis is that
Marx's theory of communism logically contains a religious moment,
we radically redefine the salient terms of this proposition.
This revision stems from our excavation and evaluation of Marx's
critique of religion. We limit our purview to Marx and to the sources
that influenced him in this area. In Chapter I, we uncover the thematic
roots of Marx's critique and trace the rationalist assumptions that
were held by his source influences and that were reproduced, mostly
unconsciously, in his writings on religion. In Chapter II, we examine
the evolution and significance of this thematic legacy in Marx's
texts. In particular, we detail the effect of Marx's rationalist
premises on his implicit construction of a true/false universality
semantic frame. In this context, we demonstrate that Marx's critique
consists of two logically distinct, yet historically intertwined,
layers, or the substantive and the methodological critiques, respectively. In Chapter III, we evaluate Marx's critique and argue that its substantive
side is invalid on both methodological and empirical grounds. This
verdict turns on our contention that the Western rat~onalist tradition
is one-sided. We also maintain, however, that the methodological side
of Marx's critique is valid. We argue that the excision of the substantive
critique does not injure the core of Marx's contribution to
religious science, but rather makes possible its reclamation. In
Chapter IV, we substantiate this point by using Marx's methodological
approach as the requisite "ground floor" of a new theoretical framework
for conceptualizing the "communist-religious" problematic, and, by
extension, for constructing a new religious science. In the course of
this exposition, we redefine religion in oikic terms, delineate why it
is useful to attribute a religious dimension to communism, sketch the
contemporary political implications of our thesis, and outline a model
of religious science that synthesizes the fundamental claims of the
historical materialist and the "holistic" traditions. / This study fundamentally departs from conventional approaches
to the "communist-religious" problematic. On the one hand, we reject
the orthodox historical materialist denial that communism involves
the positive germination of religious practices of any form whatsoever.
On the other hand, we also dismiss the "utopian" attempt to convert
Marx's theory of this era into a secular extension of Judeo-Christian
eschatological principles. Thus, though our central thesis is that
Marx's theory of communism logically contains a religious moment,
we radically redefine the salient terms of this proposition.
This revision stems from our excavation and evaluation of Marx's
critique of religion. We limit our purview to Marx and to the sources
that influenced him in this area. In Chapter I, we uncover the thematic
roots of Marx's critique and trace the rationalist assumptions that
were held by his source influences and that were reproduced, mostly
unconsciously, in his writings on religion. In Chapter II, we examine
the evolution and significance of this thematic legacy in Marx's
texts. In particular, we detail the effect of Marx's rationalist
premises on his implicit construction of a true/false universality
semantic frame. In this context, we demonstrate that Marx's critique
consists of two logically distinct, yet historically intertwined,
layers, or the substantive and the methodological critiques, respectively. In Chapter III, we evaluate Marx's critique and argue that its substantive
side is invalid on both methodological and empirical grounds. This
verdict turns on our contention that the Western rat~onalist tradition
is one-sided. We also maintain, however, that the methodological side
of Marx's critique is valid. We argue that the excision of the substantive
critique does not injure the core of Marx's contribution to
religious science, but rather makes possible its reclamation. In
Chapter IV, we substantiate this point by using Marx's methodological
approach as the requisite "ground floor" of a new theoretical framework
for conceptualizing the "communist-religious" problematic, and, by
extension, for constructing a new religious science. In the course of
this exposition, we redefine religion in oikic terms, delineate why it
is useful to attribute a religious dimension to communism, sketch the
contemporary political implications of our thesis, and outline a model
of religious science that synthesizes the fundamental claims of the
historical materialist and the "holistic" traditions. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/15359 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Bell, James |
| Contributors | Greenspan, Dr. Louis, Religious Studies |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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