scholarly journals Karl Marx and Liberation Theology: Dialectical Materialism and Christian Spirituality in, against, and beyond Contemporary Capitalism

Author(s):  
Peter McLaren ◽  
Petar Jandrić

This paper explores convergences and discrepancies between liberation theology and the works of Karl Marx through the dialogue between one of the key contemporary proponents of liberation theology, Peter McLaren, and the agnostic scholar in critical pedagogy, Petar Jandrić. The paper briefly outlines liberation theology and its main convergences with the works of Karl Marx. Exposing striking similarities between the two traditions in denouncing the false God of money, it explores differences in their views towards individualism and collectivism. It rejects shallow rhetorical homologies between Marx and the Bible often found in liberation theology, and suggests a change of focus from seeking a formal or Cartesian logical consistency between Marxism and Christianity to exploring their dialectical consistency. Looking at Marxist and Christian approaches to morality, it outlines close links between historical materialism and questions of value. It concludes that the shared eschaton of Marxism and the Christianity gives meaning to human history and an opportunity to change it.

Perspectiva ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
Tiago Nicola Lavoura ◽  
Ana Carolina Galvão Marsiglia

<p>http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-795X.2015v33n1p345</p><p>Este artigo possui como objetivo realizar uma discussão acerca do método pedagógico da pedagogia histórico-crítica, notadamente elucidando as bases de sua fundamentação referenciadas no Método da Economia Política elaborado por Marx na famosa Introdução de 1857. Desta feita, explicita-se o movimento do conhecimento como a passagem do empírico ao concreto pela mediação do abstrato, evidenciando o caráter mediador da educação na prática social, tomando esta como ponto de partida e ponto de chegada do trabalho educativo, tendo-se como momentos intermediários do método pedagógico a problematização desta prática social, a instrumentalização por meio da transmissão dos conhecimentos nas suas formas mais elaboradas e a catarse enquanto síntese de desenvolvimento do aluno e, consequentemente, a possibilidade de alteração da prática social humano-genérica. Assim, busca-se evidenciar a lógica dialética desta proposta pedagógica que defende a atividade de ensino na educação escolar como aquela responsável pela reprodução ideal do movimento real dos conteúdos escolares, permitindo o alcance da riqueza categorial dos objetos de ensino enquanto síntese de múltiplas determinações e relações numerosas. Nesse sentido, compreender o método pedagógico dessa teoria em consonância com os fundamentos do materialismo histórico-dialético é essencial para sua realização bem sucedida e coerente com sua proposição.</p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>Historical-critical pedagogy and the defense of elaborate knowledge transmission: notes on pedagogical method</strong></p><p><strong> </strong><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>This article aims to carry out a discussion about pedagogical method of historical-critical pedagogy, clearly highlighting its fundaments on Political Economy Method, created by Karl Marx in his famous 1857. Thus, the study seeks to make clear the dialectical logic of this pedagogical  proposal that speaks up for the teaching activity in school education as that responsible by the ideal reproduction of the real school subjects movement, enabling the reach of categorical wealth of teaching objects as synthesis of multiple determinations and numerous relationship. So, it is made explicit the movement of knowledge as the passage from the empirical to the concrete by abstract mediation, highlighting the mediating character of education in social practice, taking this as a starting point and end point of the educational work, taking the questioning of this social practice as intermediate moments of pedagogical method , the manipulation through the transmission of knowledge in its most elaborate forms and catharsis as student development synthesis and consequently the possibility of changing human-generic social practice. In this sense, understanding the pedagogical method of this theory founded on Historical-Dialectical Materialism is essential to successfully and coherently carry out its proposition.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> School Education. Historical-critical Pedagogy. Dialectical Method.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>La pedagogía histórica-crítica y la defensa de la transmisión del saber elaborado: anotaciones sobre el método pedagógico</strong></p><p> <strong>Resumen</strong></p><p>El objetivo del artículo es realizar una discusión sobre el método pedagógico de la pedagogía histórica-crítica, explicado en las bases de su fundamentación referenciada en el Método de la Economía Política elaborado por Marx en la famosa Introducción de 1857. De este modo, se explicita el movimiento del conocimiento como el paso de lo empírico a lo concreto a través de la mediación de lo abstracto, resaltando el carácter mediador de la educación en la práctica social, tomándola como punto de partida y punto de llegada del trabajo educativo, teniendo como momentos intermedios del método pedagógico el problematizar esta práctica social, la instrumentalización a través de la transmisión de los conocimientos en sus formas más elaboradas y la catarsis, como síntesis de desarrollo del alumno y, como consecuencia, la posibilidad de alteración de la práctica social humana-genérica. De este modo, se busca mostrar la lógica dialéctica de esta propuesta pedagógica que aboga la actividad de enseñanza en la educación escolar como aquella responsable por la reproducción ideal del movimiento real de los contenidos escolares, lo que permite el alcance de la riqueza categórica de los objetos de enseñanza, como síntesis de múltiples determinaciones y relaciones numerosas. En este sentido, comprender el método pedagógico de esta teoría en consonancia con los fundamentos del materialismo histórico-dialéctico es esencial para su éxito y coherencia con su proposición.</p><p><strong>Palabras claves:</strong> Educación Escolar. Pedagogía histórica-crítica. Método Dialéctico.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 544-569
Author(s):  
Peter McLaren ◽  
Petar Jandrić

Since 2011 Peter McLaren and Petar Jandrić have written a dozen of dialogic articles focused to critical pedagogy in the age of information technology and liberation theology. These articles are packed with Peter McLaren’s interpretations of Karl Marx in various contexts, yet they never focused explicitly to McLaren’s Marxist thought. In this article we present a collection of Peter McLaren’s interpretations of Karl Marx written during 8 years of working together. Developed and published in various contexts, insights in this article do not present a complete overview of Peter McLaren’s understanding of Marxism. Yet, focusing to extremely radically different themes of information technology and liberation theology, Peter McLaren’s views present a rich source for understanding Marxist theory in the 21st century.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 215-228

This paper deals with the impact that Karl Marx"s Das Kapital (and especially its fourth volume, the theory of Surplus Value) had on the category of economy in Kazimir Malevich"s output. In a series of texts, Malevich proclaims economy the new criterion of art and the Black Square its embodiment in contemporary painting. While the author was analyzing Marx"s views on labor and human nature, echoes of them turned up in Malevich"s manifestos and philosophical essays where the artist pondered the idea of the liberation of creative exaltation. The article others an interpretation of the creative process itself from the standpoint of economy, which for Malevich provided an opportunity to lay down the foundation for a new kind of art that was consistent with the prevailing ideology. The author points out that while Malevich was in Vitebsk he studied Marx"s works with idea of incorporating economic studies into art: his speculations on the relationships between the ideological superstructure and the practical, economic base were written in the manner of Marxist philosophy and provided the basis for his main essays, The World as Non-Objectivity (1923) and Suprematism: Thee World as Non-Objectivity or Eternal Rest (1923-1924). They defined the new art as an independent ideological superstructure positioned “outside of other contents and ideologies.” Parallel to that, the author examines the correspondence between Malevich"s theory of the surplus element and Marxist doctrines on surplus value. It is also shown that Malevich hoped to prove that, as in dialectical materialism, his new surplus element opens the way to a new artistic structure that is emerging from the womb of the old system in the same way that communism comes about as a kind of heterogeneous body from within the underpinnings of bourgeois society.


Author(s):  
Jung Mo Sung

From the perspective of liberation theology, God does not reveal himself so that the human being may know something, but rather so that the human being may be more humane. Revelation is an act of liberation, which delivers the truth that is a prisoner of injustice and sin. In this sense, revelation is not a set of right doctrines (a subject-object relationship), but is a pedagogical process in which human beings, in their relationship to other people (a subject–subject relationship), discover that God does not discriminate among people, that in God all persons are equal in their fundamental dignity. This revelation of God in human history begins with the outcry of the poor and the victims of oppressive relationships and goes on in the discernment between God, who hears the outcry of the victims and calls them to liberation, and the idols and idolaters who do not listen to them and do not recognize their humanity.


2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger L. Emerson

Abstract "Conjectural history" is used here to "denote any rational or naturalistic account of the origins and development of institutions, beliefs or practices not based on documents or copies of documents or other artifacts contemporary (or thought to be contemporary) with the subjects studied." Many recent historians have focused on the apparent emergence within Scotland of a large number of sophisticated conjectural histories around ¡750, and analysed them within the framework of a Marxist-oriented social science. This paper argues that such a perspective is "inappropriate and misguided." If one looks at these works as an outcome of what went before, rather than a forerunner of what came after, they begin to lose their modernistic flavour. Conjectural histories of the Scottish Enlightenment were based essentially on four sources: the Bible and its commentaries, the classics, modern works of philosophy and travel accounts. Each had an influence on the works produced. The parallels between the Biblical and the secular conjectural histories are, for example, instructive and it is clear that no Scottish historian could consistently hold a doctrine of economic deter- minism or historical materialism and still reconcile this position with his Calvinist beliefs. Works such as Lucretius' On the Nature of Things had influenced the con- jectural histories of the Renaissance and continued to be used by the Scots just as they were by the English deists, whose speculations about historical development were also helpful to Scottish writers. Travel accounts provided information concerning mankind at various stages of civilization, but no explanation of the developmental process. While the study of history was a popular pursuit during the Scottish Enlightenment this inte rest followed trends on the continent and elsewhere. Furthermore, an examination of the great works of this period suggests that they were firmly based on the writings of scholars of a generation before. Certainly the leading writers of the "golden age" from roughly 1730 to 1790 gave a more sophisticated, detailed and elaborate treatment cf these ideas, but the sources, problems and concepts which they elucidated were not new. In their analyses, they did not employ historical materialism or economic determinism, though they were undoubtedly more political-economic, dynamic and secular in their attitude. They desired change for Scotland out of a patriotic regard for the comparative backwardness of their country, but the causes and cures for that condition were not fundamentally economic in nature. If these writings are examinedas a unit, and seen in context, the conjectural historians of the Scottish Enlightenment appear to be an understandable outcome of their intellectual milieu. The author supports this conclusion by a close examination of the work of Hume and Smith. This further explicates his theme that a nascent economic determinism was not the impetus for this writing that recent historians have read into these works.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlina Dwi Oktafiah ◽  
Moses Glorino Rumambo Pandin

Not infrequently people only know Friedrich Engels as the scribe of Karl Marx. His only job was to collect, retype Marx's papers and give them to publishers. Some books describe him as an amateur writer, limited in his abilities and unable to adapt to Marx's thinking. That is why the editor of this book, Dede Mulyanto, compiled the anthology "Behind Marx: The Characters and Thoughts of Friedrich Engels" published by Marjin Kiri a few months ago.In general, the book introduces Engels' life and thought, and explores his relationship to Marx in a way that does not simply place him within or under Marx. In this book, we will realize that Engels was not only a loyal friend but also provided the impetus and avenue for Marx to write and publish his work. Not only was he the saddest person at the time of Marx's death, but he also didn't even have time to finish the Das Kapital masterpiece. In addition, we also see Engels' persistence in compiling Marx's research notes and compiling them to produce a series of publications, including Das Kapital and Das Kapital.We also gain a deeper understanding of Engels, as explained in the brief description by Sylvia Tiwon in the introduction to the book, as a theorist who developed the theory of historical materialism into scientific fields outside of economics and struggled with the latest scientific discoveries of his time.This book exists to restore Engels' figures and thoughts and to place them accordingly. It is a challenge to reintroduce the image and ideas of Engels to Indonesian readers today, not only in formal legal aspects, such as prohibiting the spread of Marxist ideas through TAP MPR/Ketetapan Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat (Resolution People's Consultative Assembly) No. 25 of 1966 but also in the theoretical aspects of Marxism itself. As we know MPR/Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat (People's Consultative Assembly) decree 25 of 1966 is a product of the highest law of the times and has acted as an integrating mechanism and effective conflict resolution to address the nation's breakdown after the G30S / PKI 1965, which devastated national unity. With the MPRS decree, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was dissolved and declared a prohibited organization throughout the territory of the Republic of Indonesia and a ban was imposed on any activities to spread or develop the understanding or teachings of Communism/Marxism-Leninism. When studying the thinking of this German man, the main question that often arises is: Why does Engels need to be studied? Why didn't Engels study Marx's thinking right away? The ideological leanings of neo-Marxist scientists further exacerbated this situation. They hoped that by identifying Engels as the culprit of the extreme and rigid interpretation, Marx's theory was freed from the bad thoughts of Soviet determination.


2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-271
Author(s):  
John H. Baker

In his play Paul, first staged at the National Theatre in 2005, Howard Brenton attempted a dramatic portrayal of one of the most influential and controversial figures in human history, the man many regard as the ‘founder’ of Christianity. In this article John Baker explores the complex relationship between Brenton's Paul and his Biblical counterpart, and asks what drew an avowed atheist and socialist to a dramatic consideration of a religious leader often condemned as authoritarian, anti-Semitic and misogynistic. John Baker was awarded his PhD by the University of Manchester in 1999. He currently teaches English Literature at the University of Westminster.


2021 ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Richard Whatmore

‘The history of political thought and Marxism’ focuses on Marxism, which became the most global and scientific philosophy in the twentieth century. An important figure here is Karl Marx, the outcast from Prussian Trier that famously contributed to the science of historical materialism. Marx’s The Condition of the Working Class in England justified revolution through a philosophy that emerged from reading European history. Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, accepted that the progress of commerce by the end of the eighteenth century made European states more powerful than others in history. Marx’s contemporaries believed that the study of societies in every stage of history is vital in understanding the future.


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