Marxism, Religion, and Emancipatory Politics

This edited collection evaluates the relationship between Marxism and religion in two ways: Marxism's treatment of religion and the religious aspects of Marxism. Its aim is to complicate the superficial understanding of Marxism as a simple rejection of religion both in theory and practice. Divided into two parts (Theory and Praxis), this book brings together the three different themes of Marxism, religion, and emancipation for the first time. The first part explores the more theoretical discussions regarding the relationship between Marxism and various themes (or currents) within religious thought, to highlight points of compatibility as well as incompatibilities/conflicts. The studies in the second part of the collection refer to how Marxist ideas are received in different parts of the world. They show that as soon as Marxism arrives in a new place, the theory interacts and bonds with a pre-existing stock of ideas, each changing the other reciprocally.

Offers the first look at the intersection of three themes: Marxism, religion, and emancipation Brings together a diverse array of scholars from politics, anthropology, sociology, geography, and economics Resuscitates the study of religion as a rubric for analysing political and religious movements

Autorentext

Graeme Kirkpatrick is Professor of Social and Cultural Theory at the University of Manchester, UK.

Peter McMylor is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK.
Simin Fadaee is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK.

Inhalt

1. Theology after Marxism.- 2. Marxism, theology and the meanings of 'critique'.- 3. Secular Redemption.- 4. Marxism and Buddhism: A History and Appraisal.- 5. Marxism and Sikhism: A reciprocal relationship.- 6. Marxism and the question of 'political religions': can Marxism be understood as a religious phenomenon?.- 7. Zapatismo and Theology of Liberation.- 8. Liberation Theology and Non-Dogmatic Marxism in the Philippines.- 9. From Freedom of Religion to Environmentalism and Democracy: Understanding the Political Praxis of Christian Activists in the Communist Party-State Vietnam.- 10. Marxism and Confucianism in China.- 11. The (im)possibilities of a Hindu Left in contemporary India.- 12.The Popular Movement of the Rif; towards a class analysis of popular Islam in the contemporary Maghreb.- 13. Marxism, Islam and the Iranian Revolution.- 14. Political Islam as Counterhegemony: The Muslim Brotherhood and the Limits of Appropriating Gramsci to the Egyptian Context.