Original scientific paper
The Sociology of Religion as a Sub-discipline of Sociology
Nikola Skledar
; Faculty of Philosophy, Zadar
Abstract
Marxist sociology and the theory of religion in Yugoslavia has not been separated from and unrelated to the trends in Marxist theory worldwide. The main feature of contemporary Marxism open towards the phenomenon of religion is the problematization of the attitudes of dogmatic Marxism regarded as indubitable and unquestionable »truths«. Dogmatic Marxist thought considered the subject--matter of religion to be a series of delusions, prejudices and superstitious nonsense, a relict of unenlightened and backward history.
In an open Marxist approach viewing the origins of religion through an onto-anthropological determination of man as a finite, deficient being, with a need for meaning and wholeness, religion has been acknowledged, on behalf of the spirit of tolerance and pluralism, the dignity of a humane attitude towards the world, this having a humane and moral significance, regardless of the differences in viewpoint and other, still remaining differences. Such a theoretical-practical concept, together with Bloch's »warm current« in Marxism and the Italian Marxists (Gramsci, Togliatti), is the concept and the approach towards religion and towards the dialogue with believers adopted by the majority of contemporary Yugoslav Marxist and Post-Marxist theoreticians and researchers of religion (Ćimić, Kerševan, Roter, Vrcan and others).
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
155513
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1989.
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