A possible identification of capitalism and religion - as proposed by Walter Benjamin - cannot fail to catch our attention. Both capitalism and religion represent - according to Karl Marx - our yearning for a change in circumstances and for a fulfilment of human needs. Both Marx and Benjamin are critics of capitalism as well as of religion, with the difference that, for Marx, religion is but an illusion and only signals a misguided placation of human needs. For Benjamin, religion is marked by an ambivalence which also allows for criticism of oneself and of society. Criticism of religion, thus, gains a new character. It does not, unlike with Marx, necessarily call for an abolition of religion. Rather, an attempt at overcoming wrong circumstances can only succeed by taking the religious or something transcendent into account. Therefore, the criticism of circumstances, which ought to lead to an emancipation and to the freedom of humanity, requires religion: a religion capable of constantly rectifying itself in religious criticism.

Enthalten in:
Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche; 2018/4 (2018)

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Serie / Reihe: Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche

Personen: Gräb-Schmidt, Elisabeth

Schlagwörter: Religion Kapitalismus Anthropologie Religionskritik Benjamin, Walter Marx, Karl