Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion Studies in Critical Social Sciences Series Editor DAVID FASENFEST College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs Wayne State University Editorial Board JOANACKER, Department of Sociology, University of Oregon ROSEBREWER, Afro-American and African Studies, University of Minnesota VALBURRIS, Department of Sociology, University of Oregon CHRISCHASE-DUNN, Department of Sociology, University of California-Riverside G. WILLIAMDOMHOFF, Department of Sociology, University of California-Santa Cruz COLLETTEFAGAN, Department of Sociology, Manchester University MATHAGIMENEZ, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder HEIDIGOTTFRIED, CULMA, Wayne State University KARINGOTTSCHALL, Zentrum für Sozialpolitik, University of Bremen BOBJESSOP, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University RHONDALEVINE,Department of Sociology, Colgate University JACKIEO’REILLY,WZB, Berlin MARYROMERO,School of Justice Studies, Arizona State University CHIZUKOURNO, Department of Sociology, University of Tokyo VOLUME 6 Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion A Critique of Rational Choice Edited by Warren S. Goldstein BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2006 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marx, critical theory, and religion : a critique of rational choice / edited by Warren Goldstein. p. cm. — (Studies in critical social sciences, ISSN 1573-4234 ; v. 6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15238-0 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 90-04-15238-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Religion and sociology. 2. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. 3. Critical theory. 4. Rational choice theory. I. Goldstein, Warren. II. Series. BL60.M3265 2006 306.6—dc22 2006044017 ISSN 1573-4234 ISBN-10: 90 04 15238 5 ISBN-13: 978 90 04 15238 0 © Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTEDINTHENETHERLANDS To Vicki, Benjamin, and Rachel Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... ix Introduction: Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion: ACritique of Rational Choice .................................................................... 1 WARREN S. GOLDSTEIN I. Marx Opium as Dialectics of Religion: Metaphor, Expression and Protest ................................................................................................ 11 ANDREW M. MCKINNON The Origin of Political Economy and the Descent of Marx .................. 31 WILLIAM CLARE ROBERTS II. Critical Theory Toward a Dialectical Sociology of Religion: ACritique of Positivism and Clerico-Fascism .............................................................. 61 RUDOLF J. SIEBERT Psalm 91 .......................................................................................................... 115 MAX HORKHEIMER TRANSLATED BY MICHAELR. OTT The Notion of the Totally “Other” and its Consequence in the Critical Theory of Religion and the Rational Choice Theory of Religion .................................................................................... 121 MICHAELR. OTT From ABeautiful Mind to the Beautiful Soul: Rational Choice, Religion, and the Critical Theory of Adorno & Horkheimer .......... 151 CHRISTOPHER CRAIG BRITTAIN Intersubjectivity and Religious Language: Toward a Critique of Regressive Trends in Thanatology .................................................... 179 KENNETH G. MACKENDRICK III. Religion Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: ACritical Dialectical/ Conflict Approach to Biblical History .................................................. 205 WARREN S. GOLDSTEIN viii • Contents The Concept of Choice in the Rise of Christianity: ACritique of Rational-Choice Theory ...................................................................... 223 GEORGE LUNDSKOW Speaking in Tongues: ADialectic of Faith and Practice ........................ 249 BONNIE WRIGHTANDANNE WARFIELD RAWLS From the Caliphate to the Shaheedim: Toward a Critical Theory of Islam ........................................................................................ 285 LAUREN LANGMAN Operationalizing the Critical Theory of Religion .................................... 343 DAVID GAY, WARREN S. GOLDSTEIN,ANDANNACAMPBELLBUCK About the Authors ........................................................................................ 359 References ...................................................................................................... 363 Index ................................................................................................................ 389 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the people who have made this book possible. First, I would like to thank David Fasenfest, editor of Critical Sociology and Series Editor for the Studies in Critical Social Science for Brill. David is the one who first proposed a special issue for Critical Sociology (31/1–2) on Religion and Marxism and, later, that it be transformed into an edited volume. I would like to thank Lauren Langman who showed up to my roundtable presenta- tion on Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch at the American Sociological Association Meeting in Miami Beach, FLin 1993, while I was a doctoral can- didate. Together, David and Lauren, with their ongoing support, have been my surrogate mentors. I would like to thank the authors in this book, all of whom submitted mul- tiple revisions of their articles. They are Rudi Siebert, Lauren Langman, Anne Rawls, Mike Ott, Chris Brittain, Ken MacKendrick, Andrew McKinnon, George Lundskow, Will Roberts, Bonnie Wright, David Gay and Anna Campbell Buck. I would like to thank Lesley Kenny, a PhD student at the University of Toronto, who did a splendid job copyediting all of the articles in this book, and Michael Bachmann, an outstanding PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Central Florida, who had the arduous task of combining all of the bibliographies. I would like to thank all of my colleagues in the Department of Sociology (and Anthropology) at the University of Central Florida. They have been friendly and open minded toward my critical theory, with all its associations. I would like to thank my comrades from the New School, with whom I have had an ongoing friendship since our days of alternating between being scholars and activistsin the streets of Manhattan during the days of the first Persian Gulf War. In particular, I thank comrades Joel Stillerman, Perry Chang, Jan Lin and Harry Dahms. I would like to thank my mother, Muriel Goldstein, who not only made my career as a sociologist possible, but with whom I share a common polit- ical understanding. Finally, I would like to thank my family, to whom this book is dedicated. My wife, Vicki Spetter, and children Benjamin and Rachel Spetter-Goldstein, have had to live with a husband/father trying to get tenure at a research uni- versity. They give my life meaning that makes the stresses of my career in contrast seem insignificant.