Ideology, Fetishism, Apophaticism
Marxist Criticism and Christianity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21363321 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Saunders (0000-0002-0668-4437, Pasadena City College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue | 1106 |
| Pages | 436-457 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Blackfriars (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0028-4289 • E-ISSN: 1741-2005 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/nbfr.12642 |
| OpenAlex | W3153764483 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
This paper explores Christianity's ambiguous relationship to capitalism by engaging Marx's notion of the fetishism of commodities as a way of rethinking Marxism's critique of religion from the standpoint of political economy. Following Etienne Balibar's distinction between the theory of ideology and Capital's theory of fetishism, I examine how the later Marx conceived of religion as socially conditioned by the society of commodity production, which takes on religious dimensions. Commodities are the basis for a concept of fetishism which commands total subjection, alienating human beings under capitalism. This critical focus also reveals Christianity in its totalizing role as a symbolic structure shaped by the inescapable logic of exchange-value, money, and universal equivalents. Nonetheless, Christianity retains the impetus to anti-fetishism, provided it unites with the Marxist science of critical perception. This anti-fetishistic union focuses on the transparent and revolutionized social relations of real presence as the nonalienated reverse of fetishism's false presence. A critical apophaticism, tempered by the materialist amendments of Marika Rose and Slavoj Žižek, offers the bridge to such a union and highlights the anti-fetishistic avenues of failure and utopia
Capitalism · Christianity · Commodity · Criticism · Economics · Epistemology · Fetishism · Ideology · Marxist philosophy · Materialism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Religious studies
| Highly cited | No |
|---|