Book review On Marx’s ‘‘soulless

This review engages Berger M, Reichardt T and Städtler M (eds) (2012) Der Geist geistloser Zustände: Religionskritik und Gesellschaftstheorie. The collection, along with each of the essays, is examined as a contribution to political and social critique of religion in light of secularization and pluralization. Keywords critical theory, Marx, secularization Above his door, and later on his own tombstone, Carl Jung had a Delphic oracle inscribed: Vocatus atque non vocatus Deus aderit: ‘‘Bidden or not, God is present.’ ’ That Jung was by no means a believer merely underscores the perduring social reality and kaleidoscopic breadth of transcendent claims in an increasingly immanent world. Bidden or not, and indeed true or not, religion is present, and it endures, despite compelling sociological and philosophical predictions to the contrary. The stubborn resilience—and surprising growth—of religion well after its prophesied demise has rightly caused scholars of all fields to reconsider the dialectic of the religious and secular. That religion continues to have a presence and role—both in domination and liberation—in political and social spheres is obvious, but what kind of presence is it, and should it have? In the administered society of our advanced capitalistic world, can religion be anything more than private nostalgia for glimpses of transcendence