Religiosity and Class

Marx’s Perspective According to Marx, the Bourgeoisie use religion to justify and legitimate their dominance over the Proletariat. The Ruling Class convinces the working class that their situation is justified and that they will be rewarded in the afterlife if they accepted their position (“put up and shut up”). Offering the proletariat “false compensation” allows the Bourgeoisie to maintain the “status quo”.

Marx’s Perspective Marx has also recognised that the focus of the lower classes is on survival rather than religion. Through oppression and exploitation, the Bourgeoisie creates a false class consciousness in the proletariat. Therefore, in eyes of Marx religion is a “tool of oppression”, often described as “mystical fog”, “spiritual gin” or “opium of the people” – because it stops the lower class from realising their position of being exploited / oppressed.

Mannheim’s Perspective Mannheim argued that members of the Proletariat have a “Utopian Mentality” – they want a better life. However, Mannheim identified that should the oppressed class overthrow the ruling class, it would simply embrace the ideology of the rulers they replaced – thus, the class equality is unachievable.

Weber’s Perspective Weber has come up with two important terms – “Theodicy of Privilege” and “Theodicy of Dis-privilege” – a “theodicy” is a religious explanation for something - in this case, either privilege or dis-privilege Eg Explaining the marginalised position of religious followers (theodicy of dis-privilege”), encourages them to view their exploitation and oppression as a “test of faith”. These concepts explain how the Bourgeoisie is able to dominate the Proletariat through “feeding” them this ideology. An example for this is the “Nation of Islam” which recruited mostly from disadvantaged black people.

Neo-Marxists’ Perspective Neo-Marxists have explored a more positive role of religion, as they noticed that sometimes religion can have “relative autonomy” within the super-structure and work for the benefit of the working class. This idea led to the “Liberation Theology” theory – whereby the organic intellectuals (bishops etc) encourage true working class consciousness which can lead to their liberation. Burmese monks and South American bishops Romero and Torres are good examples of the Liberation Theology.

Religious Movements and Deprivation As was outlined earlier, the materially deprived may seek out a “Theodicy of Dis-privilege” from religion. However, those who are “relatively” or “spiritually” deprived are also likely to seek comfort in religion – just in different forms.

Sects The deprived seek to belong to a church that “compensates them”, so they are more likely to join sects, even if it means rejection of the real world. On the other hand the privileged want a church that “reinforces” their position, therefore they are more likely to stay with mainstream churches which allow them to legitimise and justify their position.