Importance of Religion in 4 Theorists

Marx deals with the alienation which society produces in the individual, and argues that religion, which aims at healing this alienation, in fact masks its economic causes. The other theorists will be shown to take too lukewarm a view of the ills of society and the role religion plays in society, although aspects of each theorist's views are useful to an understanding of religion and society.

This is not to say that Marx is correct in his estimation of religion, for, in fact, this reader disagrees with his general dismissal of religion as a way to discover the reality of human existence. However, in the specific context of the study, Marx's theory presents the strongest portrait of the ills of society and the role which institutional religion plays in those ills.

Marx sees all social relations as a product of economic factors, and thus he believes religion to be a distraction from that economic essence. Weber believes in the important and distinct role religion played in the ori

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ality of the life-process and, as it does so, it creates a false consciousness which hides from them their reality. Marx believes that it is crucial that society experience the pain of alienation created by the evolving means of production, the impact of the division of labor, and the class conflict, so that this pain can be translated into the action necessary for a revolutionary righting of the wrongs of capitalism. Religion is a sociological distraction, a "mediation" designed to keep the workers heads in an "imaginary world." (Tucker 144). To Marx, however, "socialism as socialism no longer stands in any need of such a mediation," but is "man's positive self-consciousness no longer mediated through the annulment of religion" (Tucker 93). Weber sees the development of Protestantism as a vital element in the stability, development and modernization of Western capitalist society. This stands in stark contrast to the view of Marx. Marx sees religion as a tool of deception flowing from economic imperatives, but Weber sees religion as an important part of society with meaning and function independent of economics, related distinctly to man's religious needs. Marx believes these needs are false, created by capitalists to further ens
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