[FRA:] Max Horkheimer on Religion

[Kenneth MacKendrick]

-----Original Message-----
From: theory-frankfurt-school-bounces at srcf.ucam.org
[mailto:theory-frankfurt-school-bounces at srcf.ucam.org] On Behalf Of Ralph
Dumain
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 1:22 AM
To: theory-frankfurt-school at srcf.ucam.org
Subject: [FRA:] Max Horkheimer on Religion

In re:
Brittain, Christopher Craig. "Social Theory and the Premise of All 
Criticism: Max Horkheimer on Religion," Critical Sociology, vol. 31, 
no. 1-2, pp. 153-168, 2005.


As for Brittain's agenda:

"Although many of these reflections remain fragmentary and 
undeveloped, Horkheimer's reflections on religion suggest avenues for 
an ongoing and fruitful dialogue between historical materialism and
religion."

Horseshit!

Ralph,

I think you're underestimating the "religious impulse" the underlines the
bulk of Frankfurt School theorizing. Hegel was a CHRISTIAN theologian. Marx
didn't really do much de-Christianizing of his dialectic. Most of the entire
project of critical theory has religious underpinnings, as Brittain
suggests. These roots and tendencies and inspirations are _ambiguous_ in the
Freudian Totem and Taboo sense of the term. This genuinely means an affinity
between critical theory and religion. All of the critical theorists - all of
them - saw a future either for religion OR the history of religions in
modernity. See Hans Kippenberg's Discovering Religious History in the Modern
Age for a possible explanation why.

Theologians and religious adherents will inevitably be drawn to critical
theory as modernity erodes its object domain (technology replaces the
supernatural, so the theologian must retreat to the places that technology
has not yet occupied, freedom, justice, spirit). Of course there is an
ongoing and fruitful dialogue between historical materialism and religion...
maybe more fruitful for religion than historical materialism though. But -
you MUST recognize - religious language remains inspiring for many. Not
supernatural contact or miracles - but the rejuvenating power of religious
metaphor. I've noticed your use of the term horseshit, the same shit from
which the devil sprang? And masturbation, one of the deadly sins? The
language of condemnation - the graphic imagery - is religious in its legacy
and efficacy. You use it on the list all the time. Why? Because it sets
people on edge. It gives you a means of expression that is poignant (and
something to sound off about).

The Protestant Reformers and the Student Revolts had far more in common that
many would like to admit. Both opposed ritual, institution, and dogma. Both
spiritualized their discourses with the Holy Ghost (Luther), LDS (Kesey), or
the Spirit of Utopia (Bloch). All turned toward the interior self as a means
of resisting external reality. I learned this from Mary Douglas, Natural
Symbols, someone else who thought that religion had a future.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a secularist through and through, but the secularist
position is also ambivalence. It does depend on a shoring up of religious
sentiment in the private sphere, and I know what that means: JERRY FALWELL.

Lupus in fabula,
Ken

Dept of Religion
University of Manitoba