Religious in Form, Socialist in Content: Socialist Narratives and the Question of Civil Religion
Socialist narratives have a long history of being interpreted as religious in content and form. Scholars draw on concepts such as ‘political religion,’ ‘secular religion,’ and ‘civil religion’ to describe an alleged world-transcending quality of socialism. These concepts possess, however, normative...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2017
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| In: |
Journal of religion in Europe
Year: 2017, Volume: 10, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 147-171 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Socialism
/ Ritual
/ Narrativity
/ Civil religion
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion KBB German language area ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
Socialism
civil religion
narratology
aesthetic response
classification
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| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Socialist narratives have a long history of being interpreted as religious in content and form. Scholars draw on concepts such as ‘political religion,’ ‘secular religion,’ and ‘civil religion’ to describe an alleged world-transcending quality of socialism. These concepts possess, however, normative implications since they often suggest a difference from ‘true’ or ‘real’ religion. The following article does not select a specific definition to confirm or repudiate the alleged character of socialism as a civil religion; nor will it suggest another term to describe this character more appropriately. Instead, it addresses the as-religion reflex evidenced in such acts of classification themselves by asking the question: what are the aesthetic conditions for a political system to be perceived as religious? By analysing various implementation strategies of the German Democratic Republic’s master narrative—captured in the motto “socialism will triumph”—this paper examines the narrative structures through which real socialism produced meaning. Literary-aesthetic analysis reveals that meaning and relevance were created through a carefully selected set of literary patterns. These patterns can induce the as-religion reflex even when the narrative content is considered to be secular. Reflections and analytical differentiations of form and content prove crucial to classifying narratives as expressions of civil religion. |
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| ISSN: | 1874-8929 |
| Contains: | In: Journal of religion in Europe
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/18748929-01002006 |