7. Marxism & Change

• Support

  Churches kept miners' morale high with sermons & song

  Textile workers had opposition from the church
• Organisation

  Churches were used as meeting spaces for miners

  Textile workers didn't have this & used their workplaces to meet
• Leadership

  Miners benefitted from having 'organic intellectuals' who could rationalise oppression to others

  Textile workers didn't have this
• What 3 ways did Billings identify religion was supported/challenged by employers' hegemony?


  Leadership

  Organisation

  Support
• How did Gramsci criticise Marx?


  -When the church joins forces with the working class, they challenge the system & free themselves from oppression

  -Religion is just as readily a means to revolt as it is for oppression
• Worsley's cargo cults (Melanesia)


  Islanders of Melanesia felt deprived when 'cargo' arrived for the colonists occupying the territory

  So cargo cults were made in the 19-20th centuries

  They inflamed communities

  This unifying idea united neighbouring tribes & allowed it to be overturned
• What did Worsley say about millenarian movements?

  Those who expected total transformation of the world by supernatural means didn't experience success
• How does millenarianism cause hope?

  As religious guidance rises the hope of a better after life, this could create a desire to change this here and now
• Millenarianism

  The idea that christ would come into the world for a second time & rule for 1,000 years before the day of judgement
• What did Casanova say about Liberation Theology?


  The theology of Catholicism played an important role resisting state terror & bringing democracy

  -The idea of the church that provided a unity all could access
• How did Pope John Paul II condemn liberation theology?

  -He said that it 'resembled Marxism'

  -Told priests to focus on pastoral activities, not political struggle
• What led to Liberation theology?

  The deepening of of rural poverty & urban slums in 60s & 70s

  Abuse of human rights in South America

  Growing commitment of Catholic priests to support an ideology that supported the poor
• Liberation Theology

  A movement within the Catholic church in South America to understand Christianity from the perspective of the poor and oppressed, with a focus on fighting injustice
• (Bloch) 'The principle of hope'


  Religion often inhibits change but can inspire protest & rebellion through a vision of a better world