neo marxism

• Neo-Marxism


  A re-imagining of Marxist ideas in the wake of the spread of authoritarian communism in the Soviet Union
• Thinkers associated with Neo-Marxism

  • Herbert Marcuse
  • Theodore Adorno
  • Antonio Gramsci
  • Louis Althusser
• Neo-Marxism


  • Evolves from traditional Marxist ideas of inequality and exploitation
  • Influenced by Weberian sociology
  • Addresses some of the failings of Marx's original teachings
  • Examines the role of colonialism in developmental theories
  • Influenced by more contemporary economic theories as capitalist society continued to grow beyond Marx's predictions
• Neo-Marxist views on religion

  • Religion can both indoctrinate and liberate individuals (Gramsci)
  • Religion is a form of ideological state apparatus controlling the way individual civil society (Althusser)
  • Religion is a force for social change (Maduro and Bloch)
  • Religion contributes to the hegemonic control of the ruling class (Gramsci)
  • Religion has the potential to develop a counter-hegemony against the ruling class (Gramsci)
  • Religion serves the needs of the ruling class by controlling the masses (Althusser)
  • Religion provides guidance to the working class in their struggle with the ruling classes (Maduro)
  • Religion offers hope and a vision of a more utopian future, encouraging change and collective action (Bloch)
• Rapid secularization in the western world

  Leads us to question what role religion has to play in social change
• Religion rarely challenges the established order of society or ruling class ideologies in the western world
• Those who argue against secularization suggest that religion maintains its importance in looking to change society for the better and can act as a form of cultural defense