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History of religions, 2017-11, Vol.57 (2), p.197-221
Ort / Verlag
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2017
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Alma/SFX Local Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
If it seems strange to inquire about the relationship between socialism and esotericism, this is only so because the history of early socialism has rarely been an object of research in the field of religious studies. After the disastrous outcome of the February Revolution of 1848, the French socialist "schools" that had been predominant under the July Monarchy especially Saint-Simonism, Fourierism, and the "Icarian Communism" of Etienne Cabet--have been eclipsed by other socialist currents whose attitude toward religion was at least critical. Denounced as "utopian socialism" by Engels and Marx in Das Kommunistische Manifest and their subsequent writings, the doctrines of the July Monarchy socialists soon obtained the status of mere "predecessors" of a socialism that had yet to emancipate itself from its juvenile illusions. For many socialist historians and theoreticians, the topic of "religion" became a matter of particular embarrassment. In the twentieth century, after the October Revolution and two world wars, the religious ideas of the French socialists were usually marginalized or ridiculed. In contrast, a number of valuable studies have shown the central importance of the relationship between socialism and religion. In fact, socialist ideas have played a significant role for the emergence of new religious identities in the nineteenth century and consequently deserve more attention from a religious studies perspective than has been the case so far. Here, Strube discusses the socialism and esotericism in July monarchy France.