Frankfurt School on Religion: Key Writings by the Major Thinkers, The

Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2006 by Brittain, Christopher C

The Frankfurt School on Religion: Key Writings by the Major Thinkers. Edited by Eduardo Mendieta. New York and London: Routledge, 2005. vii 405 pp. $28.95 (paper).

Religion has once again become a fashionable topic in philosophy and social theory. Many cultural theorists and sociologists are now critical of the presumption that, in modern societies, religious communities and discourse will become increasingly marginalized and irrelevant in the face of scientific knowledge and ethnic pluralism. The Frankfurt School on Religion brings together some of the early sources of this emerging critique of the so-called "secularization thesis." The book represents a significant contribution to rethinking the place of religion in what is referred to as our "post-secular" world. It will be of interest to those concerned with the status of religion in contemporary society, philosophy of religion, moral theory, and the relationship between theology and social theory.

The "Frankfurt School" is the name often given to a diverse group of philosophers and social theorists who assembled in the 1930s at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. The Institute sought to establish a collaborative and interdisciplinary research program, informed by Marxian "historical materialism," economics, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and aesthetics. Though many of the theorists associated with the "critical theory" of the Frankfurt School were nonpracticing Jews, they consistently displayed a profound interest in religion. Like Karl Marx, they agreed that religion often functions as the "opiate of the masses." But in a society colonized by "instrumental thinking" and consumerism, they also saw religious experience and theological discourse as being among the few places in which concerns for ultimate truth and a just society were retained. As Eduardo Mendieta summarizes in his introduction to the volume, the concept of God in the "negative theology" of these theorists serves to "negate the present Golgotha" of existing unjust social relations (p. 10).

The Frankfurt School on Religion includes essays by Ernst Bloch and Walter Benjamin, who, though not members of the Institute, greatly influenced the work of its official representatives. Essays by Erich Fromm, Leo Löwenthal, Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, and Max Horkheimer serve to illustrate how the members of the Institute interpret Benjamin's view that "One can behold in capitalism a religion" (p. 259), as well as Bloch's assertion that "Where there is hope there is religion" (p. 50). Horkheimer, for example, negotiates between these two poles of understanding in his essay "Theism and Atheism." He concludes that whereas "Atheism was once a sign of inner independence and incredible courage" (p. 222), "Nowadays atheism is in fact the attitude of those who follow whatever power happens to be dominant" (p. 223).

Four essays by Jürgen Habermas demonstrate how such concerns are developed by the "second generation" of the Frankfurt School. These recent writings offer a more hospitable place to religion than Habermas has previously granted in his theory of communicative action. Although he has argued in the past that social theory does not require theology to achieve "transcendence from within" (p. 323), Habermas now suggests that civil society and fruitful communication between differences require "pre-political" motivations and sources of the kind found among the virtues nurtured within religious communities (p. 342). Habermas not only argues that the voices of religious adherents should be welcomed in the public sphere, but also that "philosophy has reason to display a willingness to learn from religious traditions" (p. 345).

These provocative essays are complemented by writings from three theologians who have employed the thought of the Frankfurt School in their work: Johann Baptist Metz, Helmut Peukert, and Edmund Areas. These examples demonstrate the vitality and depth of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and illustrate how rich a resource their writing is for social and political theology. This volume, and the work of the Frankfurt School, should not be overlooked by anyone seeking to reflect on the place of religion and theology in societies dominated by the discourses of science and consumerism.

CHRISTOPHER C. BRITTAIN

Atlantic School of Theology

Halifax, Nova Scotia