Tendencies in Class Interpretation of Religious Alienation

Abstract

The essence of religious alienation may be identified by the use of Marx's method as we study the relationship of human beings to inimical natural and social forces dominant over them and give primary attention to the internal structure of socioeconomic alienation. In this connection it is necessary to take into consideration that the category alienation does not reveal its historical quality directly. Therefore, Marx and Engels did not confine their analysis to identifying the major features of alienation, but sought to uncover the specifics of particular historically concrete forms of alienation. But the category alienation is a wholly meaningful abstraction, for it expresses a characteristic feature of the prehistory of humanity: realities created by human beings present themselves as dominant inimical, spontaneous forces not subordinate to the action of human beings. The Marxist analysis of the economic basis of alienation (analysis of alienated labor) is the key to understanding all alienation.