Karl Marx’s Theory of Religion: Definition, Sources,
world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of
Ideology and Criticism
Definition of Religion:
A fruitful and comprehensive analysis of Marx’s political
ideas and philosophy will remain incomplete without any reference
to religion because it constitutes the core aspect of Marx’s
materialism in historical background in particular and political
philosophy in general.
In this article we shall focus our attention on his analysis
about religion. He defines or explains religion in the following manner.
It is the considered opinion of Marx, which he formed on the
basis of study of history, is that man makes religion, but religion does
not make man.
In other words, religion is the self-consciousness and self-
feeling of man who has either not yet found himself or has already
lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the
world.
Man is the world of man, the state, and society. Religion is
the general theory of that world, its encyclopedic compendium, its
logic in a popular form. It is the fantastic realization of human essence,
because the human essence has no true reality.
The struggle against religion is therefore immediately the
fight against the other world of which religion is the spiritual aroma.
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless
the people (Contribution to Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right).
In the above definition Marx has stressed few points about
religion which require special emphasis. In his opinion religion has
been created by man to meet his own requirements. It is not the
opposite. It is secondly the fantastic realization of human essence
and this has no practical existence.
Religion is associated with the other world. Thirdly, it is the
sigh of persons who are exploited. Finally, we refer to his famous
remark. It is like a sedative. Marx calls it opium.
Religion helps man to forget the real world. Persons having
vested interests use religion for the attainment of their parochial and
limited interests. Marx makes all these remarks about religion in the
background of the role religion played in all the periods before him.
Though religion was quite active in almost all periods of
European history, it was super- active during the middle Ages.
Explaining Marx’s stand on religion Lenin says that religion is
one of the forms of spiritual oppression. Religion is a weapon which
blunts the sharpness of human intelligence and productive capacity
of workers.
He further observes that religion teaches man to be
submissive and docile. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze in which
the slaves of capital drown their human image. According to Lenin
common people have been taught religion to make them forgetful of
the prevailing social political and economic conditions. The approach
to religion adopted by the ruling class is a way of exploiting the
masses of people.
Marx, Engels and Lenin hold that religion must be treated as
a private affair and state must not have any role in religious matter.
The state should not interfere with the religious beliefs of individuals.
It shall not be the business of state to encourage or
discourage any religious belief. There shall be no provision of subsidy
in any form to religious institutions such as church or ecclesiastical
organization. The citizens shall enjoy full freedom to form or join
associations according to their own belief or faith.
Sources of Marx’s Thought:
For almost all the major aspects of his philosophy in general
and political ideas in particular Marx is indebted to his predecessors
and his thought on religion is not an exception. His indebtedness to
Feuerbach and Hegel may be mentioned.
At an early age Marx read Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity
which created a strong impact upon his mind. Feuerbach has stated
that the ignorance of man fails to explain the natural and other
phenomena and this leads him to take the help of religion.
In other words man endeavors all the “unexplained”
phenomena to treat as supernatural or religious and for this reason
Feuerbach calls religion a fantasy which compensates his own
inadequacy.
Man feels that he is inferior to what he might be. In this way
the idea of God appears in his thought system and imaginary world.
Man thus creates God after his own image. Feuerbach has clearly
stated that when man was in the depth of insecurity and helplessness
he created an imaginary concept in the name of God and
subsequently that became religious and this was not the reflection of
the real world.
Feuerbach has also said that as man will be able to acquire
more and more knowledge in accurate form and will be able to
explain correctly the natural and other phenomena the idea of God
and religion will become more and more indistinct and one day it will
disappear.
“Man will come into full possession of his humanity and will
dispense with his illusion of God. Religion is a product of man’s
immaturity”.
Feuerbach took this idea of religion from Hegel. There are of
course differences between them. Hegel has used the word Spirit
whereas Feuerbach speaks of man. Feuerbach’s reality has become
Spirit to Hegel.
Earlier thinkers treated religion as a social phenomenon and
this impressed Marx considerably. We observed that religious beliefs
and ceremonies were practiced by- men with a great fanfare and this
practice provided social unity.
People of all sections of society worked, lived and behaved in
a disciplined wav with the help of religious beliefs. Religion also
strengthened social unity and obligation of man to society. Religion
was thus a great cementing force. For this reason religion was a social
phenomenon and Marx noticed it with great interest.
It is to be noted here that to Feuerbach religion was a
psychological phenomenon. Feuerbach’s view did not impress Marx
considerably. He inclined to those who regarded religion as a social
phenomenon.
Marx has said that under the influence of religion man has no
freedom to implement his full potentialities; he becomes the victim
of religious practices. Man’s power and ability are limited and he
does not possess the courage to challenge the religious practices
according his own reason. In this way man is compelled by
circumstances to surrender to the social practice.
Marx also took notice of the fact that religion gave man
comfort and to some extent security. It also removed man’s sense of
fear. This is because man’s rationality did not develop properly due
to the inadequate development of education and science. Saint-
Simon for that reason argued for their progress which would be able
to remove the sense of fear and insecurity from the mind of man.
We can, therefore, say that Marx’s idea of religion is linked
with Saint-Simon’s thought on the same subject. Pointing out Marx’s
indebtedness to Saint-Simon, Plamenatz makes the following remark:
 Though Saint-Simon does not call religion the opium of the
people, he does say that theology flourishes while men are
still incapable of explaining the world and themselves
scientifically and that it holds together a society in which an
unproductive ruling class lives off the labor of others. Of
these early socialists none had a greater influence on Marx
than Saint-Simon.
It is interesting to note that Saint-Simon has drawn our
attention to the fact that the capitalist class uses religion as a weapon
of exploitation. Whole society is held together with the help of
religion and the capitalist class intensifies its control and exploitation
over that society.
In the case of any lack of obligation of working class the
capitalist class uses religion to achieve its objective. We, thus, see
that both Marx and Saint-Simon held similar views on the role and
importance of religion as a social phenomenon.
The capitalist class took active interest in the discipline and
order of society because without this its exploitation could not
become a reality. Marx noticed that in the Middle Ages the church
and priests used religion for the purpose of utilizing common people
for their benefit.
The Renaissance and Refor-mation brought about a change
in the attitude of man towards religion. But these two failed to make
the change radical. The capitalist class followed the path adopted by
the church.
Religion as Class Ideology:
We shall now deal with how and in what sense Marx
considered religion as a class ideology. The term class ideology means
religion is held or practiced by a class and the religious beliefs flourish
within the class structure.
In this regard there is a lot of controversy. It is due to the fact
that the definitions of class and religion do not always suit class
ideology. For example, the primitive tribal people had their own
religion. But the tribal communities were not classes in the Marxian
sense because Marx used the concept in a special sense. Moreover,
his definition of religion is not applicable to the religion of tribal
communities.
There are two broad aspects of Marx’s concept of religion.
The advent and development of religion is due to the ignorance of
man to understand the natural phenomena and their incapacity to
solve his problems.
When these two are overcome the importance and even the
existence of religion will be in danger. The German philosophers
Feuerbach and Hegel viewed religion as fantasy of alienated man and
Marx subscribed to this view. The alienated man being “unable to live
a full and satisfying life, seeks compensation for his incapacity”
(Plamenatz).
The above two elements of Marx’s doctrine of religion are
not compatible with class ideology. Religion interpreted by Marx is
not practiced by any particular class. But in spite of this his doctrine
of religion can be called a class ideology.
Let us quote Plamenatz again:
“Yet both these doctrines are compatible with the belief that
it is so (that is, it’s a class ideology-added). For religion, on either of
these views, can be held to be a cement holding society together, and
if society is divided into classes, some of which exploit others, it is
cement which helps to make this exploitation possible”.
All the classes use religion, of course, for different purposes.
Both the exploiters and exploited will use religious beliefs. It may be
that any one class does not believe in religion, but uses it as a weapon
for the attainment of any cherished goal. In a capitalist society the
exploiting class with the help of religion exploits the proletariat. The
working class practices religion and that helps the members to be
united.
In the middle Ages the powerful class used religion that is
Christianity to exploit the common people. The feudal landlords, the
priests and many other influential persons used religion for the
simple purpose of exploitation.
Common people were taught that the life of the other world
was more covetable and desirable and for that life they should ignore
this mortal world and abide by the sermons of the pope and other
priests of the church.
This was the way of strengthening their control over the
community. On the other hand, common people out of the fear of
punishment and to get rid of the wrath of God showed unconditional
obligation to the church.
The religious beliefs practiced by different people before
Marx was quite alive in his mind and in the background of that he
drew certain conclusions.
 In fact, religion of his time can be called a class ideology,
because no class was quite free from the influence of religion.
Moreover, each class had its own approach to religion though, in
broadest term, the religion of all classes was the same.
Religion and Science:
Religion originated due to the ignorance of man about nature
and natural phenomena. Marx, Engels and their adherents have
concluded that religion will disappear with the progress of science
and the application of science and technology to the development of
society. That is, when a society will achieve all-round development,
religion will gradually lose its importance.
The development of science will make minds of men
scientific and rational with which they will be able to disprove the
unscientific and absurd ideas of religion.
Spread of scientific spirit will also cause the disappearance of
religious faith and practices. This is due to the fact that the
development of science and scientific spirit will inculcate a feeling in
the mind of man to be indifferent to theology. Thus religion will not
be forced to disappear, it will, like the withering away of state, wither
away.
Marx and Engels have stressed that because of the
development of science man will be able to realize his potentialities
which will help the rise and strengthening of self-confidence. This will
be a sufficient factor for undermining the importance of religion in
society.
The development of science has the capacity to destroy the
alienation of man which previously caused the rise and growth of
religion in society.
How the progress of science causes the disappearance of
religion or theology can be viewed from still another perspective. The
superior knowledge derived from science enables man to answer
questions which were so long unanswerable, or man declares the
questions simply as empty.
Thus the role of religion on the solution of social problems is
removed. It is gradually reduced to non-existence. Marx and Engels
in this way have come to the conclusion that science and religion are
incompatible.
It has also been argued that the progress of science
transforms the whole society which brings about a radical change in
society. The existence of religion and progress of society due to the
development of science will lead to the coexistence between the two
impossible.
Thus the disappearance of religion or the decline of its
importance due to the progress of science is not a concept
characterized by oversimplification. Piecemeal progress of science
cannot help a radical transfor-mation of society.
It is necessary that science will lead the evolution to a stage
where men will not feel the necessity of religion. This is a more
plausible argument. In primitive tribal societies people depended
upon science not only for comfort but for various other necessities.
 When science will meet all the requirements of society man
will no longer resort to religious practices and adhere to religious
beliefs and faiths. If the society reaches that stage the need for
religion will decline.
The impact of the progress of science and scientific
knowledge upon religion has another aspect. A very important
property of scientific development and the emergence of scientific
spirit is it involves man in multifarious activities. This phenomenon
removes the idleness of mind and body.
Man finds no time to contemplate about religion. He will
concern himself with finding out avenues for accelerating material
progress. This is evident when we look at the society that emerged
after the medieval period.
Universality of Religion:
Marx’s concept of religion has been interpreted in a different
light. He calls religion as the fantasy of alienated man. But if his ideas
are thoroughly interpreted it will be found that it is more than that.
It is not the “animism and magic of the simplest societies”; it is also a
“dogmatic theology” of the complicated and sophisticated societies.
It is not true that only uneducated people of simple societies
follow and adopt religious faiths in their day-to-day life, educated and
wealthy people also practice religious faiths. Privileged people of
society scrupulously follow religion.
Plamenatz says:
“Theological religion, the type presented to us by Feuerbach
and Marx as the religion of alienated man, is the religion of the
sophisticated. It has been most fully accepted by the educated and
the privileged”.
This indicates that religion has a universal appeal. The
alienated worker may be attracted to religion, but the alienated man
who is not a worker may also be attracted to religion. Explaining
Marx’s position critics say that whenever a man suffers from
frustration or fails to solve the mysteries of nature he resorts to
religious practices.
Suffering from frustration or seeking comfort is not solitary
to any particular man or group of men. Anybody can become the
victim of circumstances and in order to get rid of that he may seek
the help of religion.
However, the unprivileged section is the victim of
environment and for that-very reason it is attracted to religion to a
greater extent. It is said that all men in a class society are alienated
and, naturally, the universality of religion will prevail.
Lenin and Religion:
 Lenin’s view on religion is not basically different from Marx’s.
But he has explained it in a greater perspective. He has said that
religion is absolutely a private affair and it must not be the business
of the state to interfere in any form with the religion. He further
observes that in a true socialist society there cannot be any place of
religion.
In an article published on 5 December 1905 he made the
above and following observations. In this article he said “Religion
must be no concern to the state, and religious societies must have no
connection with the governmental authority. Everyone must be
absolutely free to profess any religion he pleases or no religion
whatever that is to be an atheist, who every socialist is, as a rule”.
The point of emphasis is that, in a socialist state, the
authority shall have no relation with religion or religious societies.
The state will neither oppose nor support any religion which is private.
The most important thing about a socialist is he may be a believer of
any religious faith or he may not be.
He is above all an atheist. It means that a socialist is
indifferent to religion. Even if he professes any religious faith he
cannot be expected to be dogmatic. Orthodox attitude to religion is
not expected from a socialist.
In socialism there shall be complete separation between
state and church. If there is no such separation, Lenin says,
proletarians will demand the separation. This is because in the name
of religion some persons exploit the working Class and in a socialist
state there is no place of exploitation.
Emancipation is the aim of socialism and if there is religion
emancipation is not possible. Communist party is the vanguard of
workers and peasants and its members are highly self-conscious and
class-conscious.
The members of the communist party, Lenin claims, are not
the victims of ignorance and obscurantism in the shape of religious
faith. He has further maintained that if church and other religious
organizations are allowed to continue their normal functions that will
before long contaminate the mind of the working class.
For this reason he has demanded “complete
disestablishment of church, so as to be able to combat the religious
fog with purely ideological and solely ideological weapons.”
According to Lenin the yoke of religion is merely a product
and reflection of the economic yoke. Communist party will launch
propaganda to enlighten the mind of people regarding the true
nature of the religious fog.
Party will propagate that members must cultivate atheism.
Once a man becomes a victim of religion he will not be able to come
out of it. If people are not atheist, establishment of socialism will be
a very difficult task.
Lenin concludes the essay with the following remark:
“The revolutionary proletariat will succeed in making religion
a really private affair, so far as the state is concerned. And in this
political system, cleansed of medieval mildew, the proletariat will
wage a broad and open struggle for the elimination of economic
slavery, the true source of the religious humbugging of mankind.”

Criticism of Marx’s Theory of Religion:
Marx’s theory of religion is faced with few criticisms. First of
all, it is true that with the progress of science the influence of religion
will disappear. Science and technology in the twenty-first century
have reached a stage of unprecedented growth, but still there is
influence of religion. It is true that today’s people are not orthodox
in their attitude to religion, but they are not absolutely unreligious or
atheists.
There is a fear of God or feeling of religion, more or less, in
the mind of many people. So we can ‘say that progress of science and
religion coexist peacefully. It is not true that science contradicts
religion. The fields of the two are different.
In the second place, the former Russian leaders claimed that
they had succeeded in achieving socialism, but it is also true that they
had not been able to banish religion. Religion became a completely
private affair, but there was religion.
We, therefore, see that Lenin’s estimation that in socialism
there cannot be religion is not true. If in former Soviet Union there
were religion there were no socialism, or vice versa.
Thirdly, it is not correct to hold that religion is the fantasy of
alienated man. In our previous analysis we have said that even the
privileged and educated people of sophisticated societies practice
religion, but how are these people alienated? If these people are
alienated then the concept requires to be redefined. There is no such
scope.
Few more words may be said in support of Marx. While Marx
was writing about religion the position and influence of religion of
middle Ages was highly active in his mind. The students of Western
political thought are quite aware of the all-pervading influence of
Christianity in general and church in particular over all sections of
society.
Even the powerful emperors were not free from the
influence. The pope could dictate the kings in their day-to-day
activities. There was nobody to challenge the authority of the pope.
It was the religion which was responsible for the economic
backwardness of medieval Europe.
It is also true that there was a time when religion acted as
opium. Religion reduced the consciousness of people to the
minimum. In medieval society religion was so powerful that people
failed to consider their own interests. They were forced to think
about the other world which had no physical existence.
Today the orthodox aspect of religion has declined
remarkably. There are several reasons behind this and the most
important are the progress of science and the development of
consciousness.
Religion has not disappeared and will not disappear as Marx
predicted. However, the educated people have developed a sort of
indifference towards religion. There is today less orthodoxy, less
fanfare and very less humbugging.
There is religion in miniature form. Lenin is not correct when
he says that a socialist must be atheist. Many socialist minded people
have been found to practice religious principles and faiths. This is
because we are interpreting religion in a liberal way.