Secularism as a Shadow of Capital: A Historical Materialist View

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Authors

Murray, Patrick

Issue Date

2018

Volume

17

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Journal Article

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Abstract

The lesson of historical materialism is that, to meet changing human needs, there must be a social provisioning process. “Secular society” does not describe a provisioning process. “Capitalist society” names a coherent, self-maintaining and self-reproducing provisioning process. Secular society is dependent upon a set of social principles and purposes that can organize a self-sustaining society; it is a shadow of capital. Secularism traces certain features of a capitalist society even if it leaves others in the dark, so there is reason to call a capitalist society a secular society. Historical materialism widens Charles Taylor’s focus in A Secular Age on “the conditions of belief” to the social form and purpose of the material conditions of belief and unbelief.|Keywords: secularism, capitalism, historical materialism, instrumental reason and action, Karl Marx, Max Weber

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Citation

Murray, P. (2018). Secularism as a Shadow of Capital: A Historical Materialist View. Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series, 17, 105-122.

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Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University

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CC-BY 4.0

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http://hdl.handle.net/10504/119118

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https://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/toc/SS17.html

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1941-8450

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Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion and Society