Anarchists have traditionally been skeptical of or vehemently opposed to
organized religion
Organized religion, also known as institutional religion, is religion in which belief systems and rituals are systematically arranged and formally established. Organized religion is typically characterized by an official doctrine (or dogma), a ...
.
Nevertheless, some anarchists have provided religious interpretations and approaches to anarchism, including the idea that the glorification of the state is a form of sinful
idolatry
Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the A ...
.
Anarchist clashes with religion
Anarchists "are generally
non-religious and are frequently
anti-religious
Antireligion is opposition to religion. It involves opposition to organized religion, religious practices or religious institutions. The term ''antireligion'' has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship ...
, and the standard anarchist slogan is the phrase coined by a non-anarchist, the socialist
Auguste Blanqui in 1880: ‘Ni Dieu ni maître!’ (Neither God nor master!)...The argument for a negative connection is that religion supports politics, the Church supports the State, opponents of political authority also oppose religious authority".
William Godwin
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...
, "the author of the ''
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
''Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness'' is a 1793 book by the philosopher William Godwin, in which the author outlines his political philosophy. It is the first modern work to expound anarchism.
Backg ...
'' (1793), the first systematic text of
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
politics, was a
Calvinist minister who began by rejecting
Christianity, and passed through
deism
Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin ''deus'', meaning "god") is the Philosophy, philosophical position and Rationalism, rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that Empirical evi ...
to
atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
and then what was later called
agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
."
The pioneering German
individualist anarchist
Individualist anarchism is the branch of anarchism that emphasizes the individual and their Will (philosophy), will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems."What do I mean by individualism? I mean ...
Max Stirner, "began as a
left-Hegelian, post-
Feuerbachian atheist, rejecting the ‘spirit’ (Geist) of religion as well as of politics including the spook of ‘humanity’".
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, "the first person to call himself an anarchist, who was well known for saying, ‘
Property is theft’, also said, ‘God is evil’ and ‘God is the eternal X’".
Published posthumously in French in 1882,
Mikhail Bakunin's ''
God and the State'' was one of the first anarchist treatises on religion. Bakunin became an atheist while in Italy in the 1860s. He was briefly involved with
freemasonry, which influenced him in this. When he established the International Revolutionary Association, he did so with former supporters of
Mazzini, who broke with him over his
deism
Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin ''deus'', meaning "god") is the Philosophy, philosophical position and Rationalism, rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that Empirical evi ...
. It was in this period that Bakunin wrote: "God exists, therefore man is a slave. Man is free, therefore there is no God. Escape this dilemma who can!" which appeared in his unpublished ''Catechism of a freemason''. Bakunin expounds his philosophy on religion's place in history and its relationship to the modern political state. It was later published in
English by
Mother Earth Publications in 1916.
Anarcho-communism's main theorist
Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...
"was a child of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, and assumed that religion would be replaced by science and that the Church as well as the State would be abolished; he was particularly concerned with the development of a secular system of ethics which replaced supernatural theology with natural biology".
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expelled from ...
and
Carlo Cafiero, "the main founders of the Italian anarchist movement, both came from
freethinking families (and Cafiero was involved with the
National Secular Society when he visited London during the 1870s)".
In the
French anarchist movement
Anarchism in France can trace its roots to thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Restoration and was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers in the International Brigad ...
,
Eliseé Reclus was the son of a Calvinist minister and began by rejecting religion before moving on to anarchism.
Sébastien Faure, "the most active speaker and writer in the French movement for half a century"
wrote an essay titled ''Twelve Proofs of God's Inexistence''. German
insurrectionary anarchist
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and tendency within the anarchist movement that emphasizes insurrection as a revolutionary practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based o ...
Johann Most wrote an article called "The God Pestilence".
In the United States, "freethought was a basically
anti-christian,
anti-clerical movement, whose purpose was to make the individual politically and spiritually free to decide for himself on religious matters. A number of contributors to ''
Liberty'' were prominent figures in both freethought and anarchism. The individualist anarchist
George MacDonald was a co-editor of ''Freethought'' and, for a time, ''The Truth Seeker''. E.C. Walker was co-editor of the excellent free-thought / free love journal ''
Lucifer, the Light-Bearer''".
"Many of the anarchists were ardent freethinkers; reprints from freethought papers such as ''
Lucifer, the Light-Bearer'', ''Freethought'' and ''The Truth Seeker'' appeared in ''Liberty''...The church was viewed as a common ally of the state and as a repressive force in and of itself".
Late 19th century/early 20th Century anarchists such as
Voltairine de Cleyre were often associated with the
freethinkers' movement, advocating
atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
.
In Europe, a similar development occurred in French and Spanish individualist anarchist circles. "Anticlericalism, just as in the rest of the libertarian movement, in another of the frequent elements which will gain relevance related to the measure in which the (French) Republic begins to have conflicts with the church...Anti-clerical discourse, frequently called for by the french individualist
André Lorulot, will have its impacts in ''Estudios'' (a Spanish individualist anarchist publication). There will be an attack on institutionalized religion for the responsibility that it had in the past on negative developments, for its irrationality which makes it a counterpoint of philosophical and scientific progress. There will be a criticism of proselitism and ideological manipulation which happens on both believers and agnostics.". This tendency continued in French individualist anarchism in the work and activism of
Charles-Auguste Bontemps
Charles-Auguste Bontemps (February 9, 1893 – October 14, 1981) was a French individualist anarchist, pacifist, freethinker and naturist activist and writer.
Life and works
Bontemps was born on February 9, 1893, in the Nièvre department of Fra ...
and others. In the Spanish individualist anarchist magazine ''Ética'' and ''
Iniciales
Individualist anarchism in Europe proceeded from the roots laid by William GodwinGeorge Woodcock, Woodcock, George. 2004. ''Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements''. Broadview Press. p. 20. and soon expanded and diversified thr ...
'' "there is a strong interest in publishing scientific news, usually linked to a certain
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
and
anti-theist obsession, philosophy which will also work for pointing out the incompatibility between science and religion, faith and reason. In this way there will be a lot of talk on Darwin´s theories or on the negation of the existence of the soul.".
Spanish anarchists in the early 20th century were responsible for burning several
churches, though many of the church burnings were carried out by members of the
Radical Republican Party, while anarchists were blamed. Church leaders' implicit or explicit support for the
Nationalist Faction
The Nationalist faction ( es, Bando nacional) or Rebel faction ( es, Bando sublevado) was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup ...
during the
Spanish Civil War greatly contributed to the
anti-religious
Antireligion is opposition to religion. It involves opposition to organized religion, religious practices or religious institutions. The term ''antireligion'' has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship ...
sentiment.
In ''Anarchism: What It Really Stands For'',
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
wrote:
Chinese anarchists led the opposition to Christianity in the early 20th century, but the most prominent of them,
Li Shizeng, made it clear that he opposed not only Christianity but all religions as such. When he became president of the Anti-Christian Movement of 1922, he told the Beijing Atheists' League: "Religion is intrinsically old and corrupt: history has passed it by" and asked, "Why are we of the twentieth century... even debating this nonsense from primitive ages?"
Religious anarchism and anarchist themes in religions
Religious anarchists view organized religion mostly as authoritarian and hierarchical that has strayed from its
humble origins, as
Peter Marshall explains:
Buddhism
Many Westerners who call themselves Buddhists regard the
Buddhist tradition, in contrast to most other world faiths, as
nontheistic
Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of god or gods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subject o ...
, humanistic, and experientially-based. Most Buddhist schools, they point out, see the Buddha as the embodied proof that
transcendence
Transcendence, transcendent, or transcendental may refer to:
Mathematics
* Transcendental number, a number that is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients
* Algebraic element or transcendental element, an element of a field exten ...
and ultimate happiness is possible for all, without exception.
The Indian revolutionary and self-declared atheist
Har Dayal, much influenced by
Marx and
Bakunin, who sought to expel British rule from the subcontinent, was a striking instance of someone who, in the early 20th century, tried to synthesize anarchist and Buddhist ideas. Having moved to the
United States in 1912, he went so far as to establish the Bakunin Institute of California in
Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
, which he described as "the first monastery of anarchism".
Zen priest and critic Hakugen Ichikawa, in his condemnation of Buddhist support for
Japanese imperialism in Asia, once concluded that "if Buddhism is to possess social thought, it will have to take the form of B-A-C, Buddhism-Anarchism-Communism." Later in his career, he returned to this position, reframing it as "Śūnya-anarchism-communism" (空 - 無政府 - 共同体論), where
Śūnya means "the vertical foundation of both the subjectivity that engages in social revolution and, in terms of that subjectivity's basic choices, the humble and open spirit that has been purified from dogmatism, self-absolutism and the will to power." Ultimately, Hakugen suggested that this results in, "negating, in the horizontal dimension, state power; politically, this constitutes anarchism...Through the mediation of the reckoning of philosophical conscience (controlling desires) and by means of social-scientific discernment and praxis, one negates the capitalist system of private ownership and eliminates the social basis of the commodification of human labor power; economically, this amounts to communism." For Hakugen, Śūnya represents a "vertical, existential freedom, whereas anarchism and communism pertain to horizontal freedom, and the 'origin' is the point where the two dimensions of freedom intersect."
Christianity
According to some,
Christianity began primarily as a
pacifist and anarchist movement. Jesus is said, in this view, to have come to empower individuals and free people from an oppressive religious standard in the
Mosaic law
The Law of Moses ( he, תֹּורַת מֹשֶׁה ), also called the Mosaic Law, primarily refers to the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The law revealed to Moses by God.
Terminology
The Law of Moses or Torah of Moses (Hebrew ...
; he taught that the only rightful authority was God, not Man, evolving the law into the
Golden Rule (see also
liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, also known as Liberal Theology and historically as Christian Modernism (see Catholic modernism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 bill ...
).
According to
Christian anarchists, there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of
God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Christian anarchists believe that
freedom from government or church is justified spiritually and will only be guided by the grace of God if Man shows compassion to others and
turns the other cheek when confronted with violence.
As per
Christian communism, anarchism is not necessarily opposed by the
Catholic Church. Indeed,
distributism in
Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching, commonly abbreviated CST, is an area of Catholic doctrine concerning matters of human dignity and the common good in society. The ideas address oppression, the role of the state (polity), state, subsidiarity, social o ...
, such as
Pope Leo XIII's
encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from ...
''
Rerum novarum
''Rerum novarum'' (from its incipit, with the direct translation of the Latin meaning "of revolutionary change"), or ''Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor'', is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It is an open letter, pass ...
'' and
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
's ''
Quadragesimo anno,'' resembles a
Mutualist society based on
cooperatives, while
Pope John Paul II's
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ( la, Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It aims to summarize, in book for ...
states "She (the Church) has...refused to accept, in the practice of "capitalism," individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice". Notable Catholic anarchists include
Dorothy Day and
Peter Maurin, who founded the
Catholic Worker Movement.
The
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
church, or the Religious Society of Friends, is organized along anarchist lines. All decisions are made locally in a community of equals where every member's voice has equal weight. While there are no formal linkages between Quakerism and anarchism and Quakers as a whole hold a wide variety of political opinions, the long tradition of Quaker involvement in social justice work and similar outlooks on how power should be structured and decisions should be reached has led to significant crossover in membership and influence between Christian anarchists and Quakers. The Quaker influence was particularly pronounced in the
anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s and in the North American
anti-globalization movement, both of which included many thousands of anarchists and self-consciously adopted secular, consensus-based aspects of Quaker decision-making.
Gnosticism
Gnosis, as originated by Jesus, is a direct revelation of moral and ethical perfection received by each individual from God. This ‘gnosis’ is necessary for self-governance; self-governance is the foundation of an anarchist society. Jesus embodied and taught that affirmed alignment with God allows for individual gnosis, which naturally co-creates collective harmony, eliminating external governing structures.
The discovery of the ancient gnostic texts at
Nag Hammadi, coupled with the writings of the science fiction writer
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...
, especially concerning his concept of the
Black Iron Prison, has led to the development of anarcho-Gnosticism.
Islam
The Bedouin nomads of the
Khawarij were Islam's first sect. They challenged the new centralization of power in the Islamic state as an impediment to their tribe's freedom.
At least one sect of Khawarij, the
Najdat, believed that if no suitable
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
was present in the community, the position could be dispensed with. A strand of
Muʿtazili thought paralleled that of the Najdat: if rulers inevitably became tyrants, the only acceptable course of action was to depose them.
The
Nukkari subsect of
Ibadi Islam reportedly adopted a similar belief. Moreover, the
Moorish Orthodox Church of America (MOCA) also presents itself as an anarchistic religious milieu drawing especially from esoteric Islamic traditions.
Judaism
While many
Jewish anarchists were irreligious or sometimes vehemently anti-religious, a few religious anarchists and pro-anarchist thinkers combined contemporary radical ideas with traditional Judaism. Some secular anarchists, such as
Abba Gordin and
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...
, noticed remarkable similarities between anarchism and many
Kabbalistic
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...
ideas, especially in their
Hasidic
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...
interpretation. Some Jewish mystical groups were based on anti-authoritarian principles, similar to the Christian
Quakers and
Dukhobors.
Martin Buber, a deeply religious philosopher, had frequently referred to the Hasidic tradition.
The
Orthodox Kabbalist rabbi
Yehuda Ashlag believed in a religious version of
libertarian communism based on principles of Kabbalah, which he called "altruist
communism". Ashlag supported the
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
movement and preached to establish a network of self-ruled
internationalist communes, who would eventually "annul the brute-force regime completely, for "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" because "there is nothing more humiliating and degrading for a person than being under the brute-force government".
A British Orthodox rabbi,
Yankev-Meyer Zalkind
Yankev-Meyer Zalkind (August 16, 1875 - December 1937) was a British Orthodox rabbi, an anarcho-communist, a close friend of Rudolf Rocker, and an active anti-militarist.
He was born in Lithuania, and both his merchant father and mother were ...
, was an
anarcho-communist and active anti-militarist. Rabbi Zalkind was a close friend of
Rudolf Rocker, a prolific
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
writer and a prominent
Torah scholar. He argued that the ethics of the
Talmud, if properly understood, are closely related to anarchism.
One contemporary movement in Judaism with anarchist tendencies is
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Renewal () is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and musical practices. Specifically, it seeks to reintroduce the "ancient Judaic traditions of mysticism and meditation, ...
. The movement is trans-denominational, including Orthodox, non-Orthodox,
Judeo-Buddhists, and
Judeo-Pagans, focusing on feminism, environmentalism, and pacifism.
Contemporary Paganism
Neopaganism
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various Paganism, historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of No ...
, with its focus on the sanctity of nature and equality, and its often decentralized nature, has led to some neopagan-inspired anarchists. One of the most prominent is
Starhawk, who writes extensively about neopaganism and activism.
Taoism
Many early
Taoists, such as the influential
Laozi
Laozi (), also known by numerous other names, was a semilegendary ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher. Laozi ( zh, ) is a Chinese honorific, generally translated as "the Old Master". Traditional accounts say he was born as in the state
...
and
Zhuangzi, were critical of authority and advised rulers that the less controlling they were, the more stable and effective their rule would be. There is debate among contemporary anarchists about whether or not this counts as an anarchist view. It is known, however, that some less influential Taoists, such as
Bao Jingyan, explicitly advocated anarchy.
20th and 21st-century anarchists such as
Liu Shifu and
Ursula K. le Guin have also identified as Taoists.
References
Sources
*
*
* .
See also
*
Freedom of religion
*
Freethought
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...
*
Religion and politics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anarchism And Religion
Issues in anarchism
Religion and politics
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