Marxism, Religion & Change

• Often thought as as an entirely conservative ideology - a set of ruling-class ideas that legitimate class inequalities.

• however, Marxists recognise that ideas, including religious ideas, can have relative autonomy- they can be partly independent of the capitalist economic base of society.

• Religion can have a dual character - sometimes being a force for change as well as stability.

• The Marxist Bloch sees religion as having a dual character.
• He accepts that religion often inhibits change, but argues that it can also inspire protest and rebellion.
• Religion is an expression of 'the principle of hope' - our dreams of a better life, containing images of utopia.
• Images of utopia can sometimes decieve people - eg, promises of rewards in heaven - but they may also help people to create a vision of a better world and strive for social change.

• LT is a movement that emerged within the Catholic Church in Latin America in the 1960's.
• A strong commitment to the poor & opposition to the military dictatorships that then ruled most of the continent.
• LT emerged b/c of the growth of rural poverty & urban slums throughtout Latin Amercia, & human rights abuses following military take-overs.
• LT emphasises 'praxis' - practical action guided by theory; eg, priests leading literacy programmes and raising political awareness. Some priests actively resisted state terror.
• However, in 1980's the Church's official attitude changed, the conservative Pope John Paul II condemned the LT as being akin to Marxism.
• However, LT played an important part in resisting dictatorship & bringing about democracy in Latin America.

An example of the desire to change things here and now, to bring about the kingdom of God on earth. Worsley - they expect the total and imminent transformation of this world by supernatural means, creating heaven on earth.

• They appeal mainly to the poor b/c they promise immediate improvement, & they often arise in colonial situations.
• European colonialism shattered the traditional tribal social structures & cultures of the colonised peoples.
• Worsley studied the cargo cults - millenarian movements in Melanesia, where islanders felt deprived when 'cargo' arrived in the islands for the colonists.
• Cargo cults asserted that the cargo had been meant for the natives but had been diverted by the whites for themselves, & that this was about to be overturned.
• These movements often led to widespread unrest.

GRAMSCI

Interested in how ruling class maintain their control over society through ideas rather than simply through coercion (force).

• Hegemony - ideological domination or leadership of society - is the way that the ruling class are able to use ideas such as religion to maintain control.
• Eg, in Italy in the 20/30s, the conservative ideological power of the Catholic Church helped to win support for the facist regime.
• However, in some circumastances religion can challenge the ruling class.
• Eg, it may help the w/c to see through the ruling-class hegemony & some clergy may act as organic intellectuals - leaders who can support working class organisations.

Billings - applies Gramsci's ideas in a case study comparing class struggle in two communities - coalminers & textile workers - in Kentucky in the 20s and 30s. Both were w/c & evangelical Protestant, but the miners were much more militant, struggling for better conditions.

The differences in levels of militancy can be understood in terms of hegemony & the role of religion.

The miners benefited from the leadership of organic intellectuals - miners who were also lay preachers.

He shows that the same religion - evangelical Protestant - can be called upon either to defend the status quo or support and justify the struggle to change it.