Secularism as a Shadow of Capital: A Historical Materialist View
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Author
Murray, Patrick
Journal
Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion & Society
Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion & Society
Page
105-122
105-122
Editor(s)
Simkins, Ronald A.; Murray, Patrick
Simkins, Ronald A.; Murray, Patrick
Volume
17
17
Date
2018Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
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