Criticism of Earth : On Marx, Engels and Theology

391 Pages·2012·1.63 MB·English

by  Roland Boer

Criticism of Earth
Historical
Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Sébastien Budgen, Paris – Steve Edwards, London
Marcel van der Linden, Amsterdam – Peter Thomas, London
VOLUME 35
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/hm
Criticism of Earth
On Marx, Engels and Theology
By
Roland Boer
LEidEn • BOSTOn
2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Boer, Roland, 1961–
Criticism of earth : on Marx, Engels, and Theology / by Roland Boer.
p. cm. — (Historical materialism book series, iSSn 1570-1522 ; v. 35)
includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
iSBn 978-90-04-22557-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883—Religion. 2. Engels,
Friedrich, 1820–1895—Religion. 3. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831—Religion.
4. Philosophy, Modern—19th century. 5. Philosophy, German--19th century. 6. Theology—
Germany—History—19th century. i. Title.
B3305.M74B59 2012
200.92’2—dc23
2011052364
iSSn 1570-1522
iSBn 978 90 04 22557 2
E-iSBn 978 90 04 22558 9
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill nV, Leiden, The netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
idC Publishers and Martinus nijhoff Publishers.
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Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................... ix
introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
Synopsis ........................................................................................................ 3
The terrain of struggle: theology and the Bible ...................................... 9
Conclusion ................................................................................................... 21
1. The Subterranean Bible ............................................................................. 25
Outwitting the censor ................................................................................ 27
Against the ruling class ............................................................................. 32
Clergy as part of a corrupt ruling class ................................................... 37
Economic allusions .................................................................................... 40
Against other opponents ........................................................................... 44
Appropriation and ambivalence .............................................................. 47
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 50
2. The Leading Article: Theology, Philosophy and Science ..................... 53
Theology and scientific research .............................................................. 54
Theology and philosophy ......................................................................... 56
Church and state ........................................................................................ 61
Fetishism and idolatry ............................................................................... 65
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 67
3. Against the Theological Hegelians i: Bruno Bauer ............................... 69
The Book of isaiah (with Herr Licentiate Bauer) ................................... 71
‘My friend of many years standing . . .’ ................................................... 79
The Jewish question ................................................................................... 86
Holy families ............................................................................................... 95
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 103
vi • Contents
4. Against the Theological Hegelians ii: Max Stirner and the Lever
of History .................................................................................................... 109
Stirner’s ego, or, the lever of history ....................................................... 111
The engine-room of historical materialism ............................................ 114
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 124
5. Against the Theological Hegelians iii: Ludwig Feuerbach’s inversion 127
inversion ...................................................................................................... 128
idealism and theology ............................................................................... 132
The theological springboard .................................................................... 135
irreligious criticism, or, completing the criticism of religion .............. 137
The new Luther .......................................................................................... 145
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 150
6. Hegel, Theology and the Secular State ................................................... 153
The formal theologian ............................................................................... 154
The theological state .................................................................................. 156
The death of theology? .............................................................................. 160
The paradox of the secular state .............................................................. 165
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 173
7. idols, Fetishes and Graven images .......................................................... 177
History of religions .................................................................................... 178
idolatry ........................................................................................................ 185
Economy ...................................................................................................... 191
Alienation and labour ........................................................................... 191
Money and Christology ........................................................................ 195
Commodities and capital ...................................................................... 197
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 203
8. Of Flowers and Chains: The Ambivalence of Theology ....................... 207
Theological tension and the Gospel of John ........................................... 208
The Bible and class-conflict  ...................................................................... 219
The two sides of opium ............................................................................. 223
Marx’s demurrer: on grace ....................................................................... 230
Contents • vii
9. Engels’s Biblical Temptations ................................................................. 233
Engels’s self-exorcism .............................................................................. 234
The challenge of contradictions ............................................................. 244
Schelling, the philosopher in Christ ...................................................... 260
Conclusion: on the loss of faith .............................................................. 269
10. Revelation and Revolution ..................................................................... 273
The two minds of Friedrich Engels ....................................................... 274
doctrinaire atheism ............................................................................. 275
Revolutionary versus reactionary Christianity ............................... 279
The ambivalent Calvinism of F.W. Krummacher ............................... 281
A soft spot for apocalyptic ...................................................................... 284
On Thomas Müntzer and the peasants ................................................. 292
Early Christianity ..................................................................................... 297
Conclusion ................................................................................................ 306
Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 307
References ........................................................................................................ 325
index ................................................................................................................. 361

Preface
i have put off writing this book for too long, daunted by the endless volumes
of Marx and Engels’s writings. At long last, I opened the first volume of their 
Collected Works. Over the next eight months, i read the whole lot, instead of
the select pieces I had read until then, finishing the last volume on the eve-
ning before boarding a freighter-ship bound for new Zealand in June 2008.
Vast, tiring and exhilarating, it was one of the greatest reading experiences
i have ever had.
From the nooks and crannies of their youth, with bad poetry, love-letters,
angry and worried parents, the story unwound in volume after volume.
Marx soon showed up as an obsessive and brilliant writer who cared noth-
ing for his health, even when there was a long history of unstable health
on his side of the family. Engels, by contrast, obviously knew how to enjoy
himself and unwind: good beer, fine wine, exquisite tobacco and women, 
mixed in with long-distance hiking and a love for swimming. We follow them
through the obstacle-course of early political journalism in the face of cen-
sorship, arrests and exile in Paris, Brussels and then London. i found myself
enticed by Engels’s background, one that was so similar to my own, as well
as his remarkable ability with languages (i have come across French, Eng-
lish, Spanish, italian, Portuguese, danish, dutch, Frisian, Russian, Bulgarian,
Romanian, devanagari or Sanskrit, as well as classical Hebrew and Greek).
While Engels passed through his hawkish phase and wrote some amazing
pieces on battles, campaigns, and the histories of matters such as infantry,
rifles and castles, Marx buried himself in piles of economic data and wrote 
endless notebooks working out his breakthrough-theories. As Marx peaked
and burned himself out with the monumental first volume of Capital, Engels
kept the whole show together, maintaining his partnership in the firm in 
Manchester, sending Marx endless pound-notes in the post, until at last he
could retire and set up both Marx and himself in relative comfort. The for-
mality of intellectual work and the immediacy of journalism finally make
x • Preface
way for the intensely personal correspondence. Here, Marx’s obsession with
his declining health – especially the interminable reports on those famous
carbuncles – shows up starkly (if before he disregarded his health, now it is at
the centre of his attention), as does Engels’s patience and irrepressibly jovial
take on life. And this is how the story closes, with Engels dutifully ensuring
Marx’s legacy through a mountain of editorial work on Marx’s unfinished 
manuscripts (not always understanding them) and yet utterly enthused by
the strides taken by the working-class and socialist movement.
When i began writing, i became conscious of the fact that Marx and Engels
too were primarily writers. i started to gain respect for Engels as a writer.
At times, he may have been too categorical and doctrinaire, not quite shin-
ing as bright as Marx, but, at other times, his texts sparkle with insight and
observation. Unlike Marx’s intense and obsessive prose, Engels could have a
lightness of touch and way of turning a phrase that draws one in. i have read
his accounts of the walk from Paris to Berne in Switzerland many times, the
travel-notes on Sweden and denmark, his glorious description of the cotton-
bale that passes through so many handlers and merchants (swindlers) before
reaching Germany, or his letters full of comments on smoking, drinking and
women, or indeed his continuous doodles, portraits and battle-scenes. Only
Engels could write, ‘. . . now i can shit in peace and then write to you in peace. . . .
damn, there’s somebody sitting in the lavatory and i am bursting’.1 no won-
der he lived to a good age. His motto, written in young Jenny’s notebook,
would have helped: ‘Your favourite virtue – jollity; Motto – take it easy’.2
Often, Engels had to remind Marx to get some fresh air and exercise instead
of sitting on a broken chair at a worn desk in order to write. For Marx was
driven by a demanding muse, one that allowed him three or four hours’ sleep
a night, rushed breaks for meals and those endless cups of coffee and reams
of tobacco. There are plenty of notes in the letters about working all night, or
for thirty hours straight until his eyes were too sore to go further, or Jenny
taking over letter-writing since he had dropped from sheer exhaustion. no
wonder he became so ill – liver, carbuncles, sores, abscesses, rheumatism,
lungs (the letters are full of them) – and no wonder he recovered when on the
sea at Margate where he ate well, went for long walks (up to 27 kilometres to
1. Engels 1839ff, p. 411; Engels 1839gg, p. 354.
2. Engels 1868k, p. 541.