Reformation and revolution: concerning the interpretation of Luther in Marx and Engels

This article traces and critiques one of the most neglected features of the engagements of Marx and Engels with religion: their extensive dealings with Martin Luther. It does so in three major steps, beginning with a consideration of anti-clericalism, which needs to be distinguished from the atheism that Marx and Engels both espoused (Engels only after his youth). Anti-clericalism is, I argue, a practice that one finds at the heart of Reformers such as Luther and Calvin, for their critique begins with uncovering and standing up to a corrupt and conniving church. Marx and Engels follow suit. Secondly, I focus on Engels' treatment of Luther in The Peasant War in Germany. Although Engels would prefer to identify Luther as the ideologue of an emerging bourgeoisie, he also notes that Luther himself provided the seeds for the radical, revolutionary work of Thomas Müntzer and the peasant revolution of 1525. Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, I deal with Marx's critically positive appraisal of Luther as the inaugurator of the first phase of the German revolution, asking whether Marx sees himself as the new Luther and whether Marx is too quick to dispense with the revolutionary features-both internal and external-of the Reformation