Criticism of heaven or of earth? On the dialectical possibilities of religion and historical materialism

This essay offers a creative encounter between Marxism and religion. It does so by drawing upon a careful and painstaking analysis of the whole tradition of engagements between Marxism and religion – from Marx and Engels through to Antonio Negri – in a five-volume study called the Criticism of Heaven and Earth (2007-12, Brill). From that study certain key insights may be drawn out, reworked and rethought, operating on the basis that rather being staunch enemies, Marxism and religion relate dialectically. The outcome in this essay, which explicates the following propositions is: 1) Any treatment of an area where theology has left its spoor – be that politics, philosophy, culture and so on – needs a healthy dose of theological suspicion. ; 2) Such a theological suspicion should be utterly vigilant on the question of secularized theology, by which I mean the use of reconditioned and adapted theological terms – such as hope, faith and love – for other purposes. ; 3) That suspicion makes its most telling move against secularized theology by pointing out that the theological use of central categories in political, philosophical and cultural debate are in fact one use of such categories. But they are by no means the primary or original uses. ; 4) The fashionable concern with ethics and its attendant categories of the subject and the other is highly problematic. Those problems show up in both its theological and materialist uses. ; 5) The theological category of grace is but a temporary place holder for the idea and practice of revolution. ; 6) The crucial and neglected element of any political movement is the necessary fable, or, as I prefer, political myth. ; 7) No matter how counter-intuitive it may seem, both theology and materialism are anti-secular projects. ; 8) Given the breakdown of the old program of secularism, an exploration of what may be called a new secularism is in order, especially in light of the interaction between historical materialism and theology