Table Of Content
Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion
Studies in Critical
Social Sciences
Series Editor
DAVID FASENFEST
College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs
Wayne State University
Editorial Board
JOANACKER, Department of Sociology, University of Oregon
ROSEBREWER, Afro-American and African Studies, University of Minnesota
VALBURRIS, Department of Sociology, University of Oregon
CHRISCHASE-DUNN, Department of Sociology, University of California-Riverside
G. WILLIAMDOMHOFF, Department of Sociology, University of California-Santa Cruz
COLLETTEFAGAN, Department of Sociology, Manchester University
MATHAGIMENEZ, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder
HEIDIGOTTFRIED, CULMA, Wayne State University
KARINGOTTSCHALL, Zentrum für Sozialpolitik, University of Bremen
BOBJESSOP, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University
RHONDALEVINE,Department of Sociology, Colgate University
JACKIEO’REILLY,WZB, Berlin
MARYROMERO,School of Justice Studies, Arizona State University
CHIZUKOURNO, Department of Sociology, University of Tokyo
VOLUME 6
Marx, Critical
Theory, and Religion
A Critique of Rational Choice
Edited by
Warren S. Goldstein
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2006
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marx, critical theory, and religion : a critique of rational choice / edited by Warren
Goldstein.
p. cm. — (Studies in critical social sciences, ISSN 1573-4234 ; v. 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15238-0 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 90-04-15238-5 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Religion and sociology. 2. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. 3. Critical theory. 4. Rational
choice theory. I. Goldstein, Warren. II. Series.
BL60.M3265 2006
306.6—dc22 2006044017
ISSN 1573-4234
ISBN-10: 90 04 15238 5
ISBN-13: 978 90 04 15238 0
© Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated stored
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Fees are subject to change.
PRINTEDINTHENETHERLANDS
To Vicki, Benjamin, and Rachel
Contents
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... ix
Introduction: Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion:
ACritique of Rational Choice .................................................................... 1
WARREN S. GOLDSTEIN
I. Marx
Opium as Dialectics of Religion: Metaphor, Expression
and Protest ................................................................................................ 11
ANDREW M. MCKINNON
The Origin of Political Economy and the Descent of Marx .................. 31
WILLIAM CLARE ROBERTS
II. Critical Theory
Toward a Dialectical Sociology of Religion: ACritique of
Positivism and Clerico-Fascism .............................................................. 61
RUDOLF J. SIEBERT
Psalm 91 .......................................................................................................... 115
MAX HORKHEIMER
TRANSLATED BY MICHAELR. OTT
The Notion of the Totally “Other” and its Consequence in
the Critical Theory of Religion and the Rational Choice
Theory of Religion .................................................................................... 121
MICHAELR. OTT
From ABeautiful Mind to the Beautiful Soul: Rational Choice,
Religion, and the Critical Theory of Adorno & Horkheimer .......... 151
CHRISTOPHER CRAIG BRITTAIN
Intersubjectivity and Religious Language: Toward a Critique
of Regressive Trends in Thanatology .................................................... 179
KENNETH G. MACKENDRICK
III. Religion
Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: ACritical Dialectical/
Conflict Approach to Biblical History .................................................. 205
WARREN S. GOLDSTEIN
viii • Contents
The Concept of Choice in the Rise of Christianity: ACritique
of Rational-Choice Theory ...................................................................... 223
GEORGE LUNDSKOW
Speaking in Tongues: ADialectic of Faith and Practice ........................ 249
BONNIE WRIGHTANDANNE WARFIELD RAWLS
From the Caliphate to the Shaheedim: Toward a Critical
Theory of Islam ........................................................................................ 285
LAUREN LANGMAN
Operationalizing the Critical Theory of Religion .................................... 343
DAVID GAY, WARREN S. GOLDSTEIN,ANDANNACAMPBELLBUCK
About the Authors ........................................................................................ 359
References ...................................................................................................... 363
Index ................................................................................................................ 389
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the people who have made this book possible. First,
I would like to thank David Fasenfest, editor of Critical Sociology and Series
Editor for the Studies in Critical Social Science for Brill. David is the one who
first proposed a special issue for Critical Sociology (31/1–2) on Religion and
Marxism and, later, that it be transformed into an edited volume. I would
like to thank Lauren Langman who showed up to my roundtable presenta-
tion on Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch at the American Sociological
Association Meeting in Miami Beach, FLin 1993, while I was a doctoral can-
didate. Together, David and Lauren, with their ongoing support, have been
my surrogate mentors.
I would like to thank the authors in this book, all of whom submitted mul-
tiple revisions of their articles. They are Rudi Siebert, Lauren Langman, Anne
Rawls, Mike Ott, Chris Brittain, Ken MacKendrick, Andrew McKinnon, George
Lundskow, Will Roberts, Bonnie Wright, David Gay and Anna Campbell Buck.
I would like to thank Lesley Kenny, a PhD student at the University of
Toronto, who did a splendid job copyediting all of the articles in this book,
and Michael Bachmann, an outstanding PhD student in the Department of
Sociology at the University of Central Florida, who had the arduous task of
combining all of the bibliographies.
I would like to thank all of my colleagues in the Department of Sociology
(and Anthropology) at the University of Central Florida. They have been
friendly and open minded toward my critical theory, with all its associations.
I would like to thank my comrades from the New School, with whom I
have had an ongoing friendship since our days of alternating between being
scholars and activistsin the streets of Manhattan during the days of the first
Persian Gulf War. In particular, I thank comrades Joel Stillerman, Perry Chang,
Jan Lin and Harry Dahms.
I would like to thank my mother, Muriel Goldstein, who not only made
my career as a sociologist possible, but with whom I share a common polit-
ical understanding.
Finally, I would like to thank my family, to whom this book is dedicated.
My wife, Vicki Spetter, and children Benjamin and Rachel Spetter-Goldstein,
have had to live with a husband/father trying to get tenure at a research uni-
versity. They give my life meaning that makes the stresses of my career in
contrast seem insignificant.
