Overview of religion within anarchism
Anarchists
have traditionally been skeptical of or vehemently opposed to
organized religion
.
[1]
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
.
[2]
[3]
Anarchist clashes with religion
[
edit
]
Anarchists "are generally
non-religious
and are frequently
anti-religious
, and the standard anarchist slogan is the phrase coined by a non-anarchist, the socialist
Auguste Blanqui
in 1880: ‘Ni Dieu ni maitre!’ (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".
[1]
William Godwin
, "the author of the
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
(1793), the first systematic text of
libertarian
politics, was a
Calvinist
minister who began by rejecting
Christianity
, and passed through
deism
to
atheism
and then what was later called
agnosticism
."
[1]
The pioneering German
individualist anarchist
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’".
[1]
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’".
[1]
Published posthumously in French in 1882,
Mikhail Bakunin
's
God and the State
[4]
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.
[5]
When he established the International Revolutionary Association, he did so with former supporters of
Mazzini
, who broke with him over his
deism
. 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 which appeared in his unpublished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
.
[6]
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
"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".
[1]
Errico Malatesta
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)".
[1]
In the
French anarchist movement
,
Elisee Reclus
was the son of a Calvinist minister and began by rejecting religion before moving on to anarchism.
[1]
Sebastien Faure
, "the most active speaker and writer in the French movement for half a century"
[1]
wrote an essay titled
Twelve Proofs of God's Inexistence
.
[7]
German
insurrectionary anarchist
Johann Most
wrote an article called "The God Pestilence".
[8]
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
".
[9]
"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".
[9]
Late 19th century/early 20th Century anarchists such as
Voltairine de Cleyre
were often associated with the
freethinkers'
movement, advocating
atheism
.
[10]
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
Andre 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 proselytism and ideological manipulation which happens on both believers and agnostics.".
[11]
This tendency continued in French individualist anarchism in the work and activism of
Charles-Auguste Bontemps
and others. In the Spanish individualist anarchist magazine
Etica
and
Iniciales
"there is a strong interest in publishing scientific news, usually linked to a certain
atheist
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."
[12]
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
during the
Spanish Civil War
greatly contributed to the
anti-religious
sentiment.
In
Anarchism: What It Really Stands For
,
Emma Goldman
wrote:
Anarchism has declared war on the pernicious influences which have so far prevented the harmonious blending of
individual
and social instincts, the individual and society. Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails.
[13]
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
[
edit
]
Religious anarchists view organized religion mostly as authoritarian and hierarchical that has strayed from its
humble
origins, as
Peter Marshall
explains:
The original message of the great religious teachers to live a
simple life
, to share the wealth of the earth, to treat each other with love and respect, to tolerate others and to live in peace invariably gets lost as worldly institutions take over. Religious leaders, like their political counterparts, accrue power to themselves, draw up
dogmas
, and wage war on
dissenters
in their own ranks and the followers of other religions. They seek protection from temporal rulers, bestowing on them in return a supernatural legitimacy and magical aura. They weave webs of mystery and mystification around naked power; they join the sword with the cross and the crescent. As a result, in nearly all cases organised religions have lost the peaceful and tolerant message of their founding fathers, whether it be
Buddha
,
Jesus
or
Mohammed
.
[15]
Buddhism
[
edit
]
Many Westerners who call themselves Buddhists regard the
Buddhist
tradition, in contrast to most other world faiths, as
nontheistic
,
humanistic
, and experientially-based. Most Buddhist schools, they point out, see the Buddha as the embodied proof that
transcendence
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
, which he described as "the first
monastery
of anarchism".
[16]
[17]
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."
[18]
Later in his career, he returned to this position, reframing it as "??nya-anarchism-communism" (空 - 無政府 - 共同?論), where
??nya
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, ??nya 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
."
[19]
Bhante Sujato
, one of the leading
Theravada
representatives in Australia considers himself an
anarchist
. In a Buddhist speech entitled
I am an
anarchist
for Dhammanet, Sujato states his anarchist
ideology
, specifically aligning himself with
anarcho-pacifism
, which he explains as being compatible with The Buddha, Buddhist lay and renunciant life, as well as being in accord with the monastic
vinaya
. In the speech, Sujato explains his belief that The Buddha was also an anarchist.
[20]
Christianity
[
edit
]
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
; he taught that the only rightful authority was God, not Man, evolving the law into the
Golden Rule
(see also
liberal Christianity
).
As per
Christian communism
, anarchism is not necessarily opposed by the
Catholic Church
. Indeed,
distributism
in
Catholic social teaching
, such as
Pope Leo XIII
's
encyclical
Rerum novarum
and
Pope Pius XI
's
Quadragesimo anno
,
[21]
is philosophically similar to anarchism.
Islam
[
edit
]
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.
[22]
At least one sect of Khawarij, the
Najdat
, believed that if no suitable
imam
was present in the community, the position could be dispensed with.
[23]
A strand of
Mu?tazili
thought paralleled that of the Najdat: if rulers inevitably became tyrants, the only acceptable course of action was to depose them.
[24]
The
Nukkari
subsect of
Ibadi Islam
reportedly adopted a similar belief.
[25]
Judaism
[
edit
]
Jacques Ellul
recounts that at the end of the
Book of Judges
(Judges 21:25) there was no king in Israel and everyone did as they saw fit.
[26]
[27]
Later in the first
Book of Samuel
(1 Samuel 8) the
people of Israel
wanted a king to be like other nations.
[27]
God declared that the people had rejected him as their king. He warned that a human king would lead to
militarism
,
conscription
, and
taxation
and that their pleas for mercy from the king's demands would go unanswered.
Samuel
passed on God's warning to the Israelites but they disregarded him and chose
Saul
as their king.
[27]
Much of the subsequent
Tanakh
chronicles them trying to live with this decision.
[28]
The first known Jewish Anarchist organisation in the United States was the
Pioneers of Liberty
(
Pionire der Frayhayt
). The
Haymarket trial
of 1886 sparked nationwide interest in anarchist ideas. On the day of the trial's sentencing, about a dozen Jewish workers of New York's
Lower East Side
founded the Pioneers of Liberty, the first Jewish anarchist organization in the United States. The group ran
Varhayt
, a short-lived, first Yiddish-language anarchist newspaper in the United States, between February and June 1889. And together with the Jewish anarchist
Knights of Liberty
group, which sprang from the Pioneers of Liberty, the two organizations together founded the long-running Yiddish-language anarchist newspaper,
Fraye Arbeter Shtime
, in 1890. The Pioneers of Liberty also published an annual paper,
Tfileh Zakeh
(Pure Prayer), which circulated during the Jewish
High Holy Days
between 1889 and 1893.
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
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".
[29]
A British rabbi,
Yankev-Meyer Zalkind
, was an
anarcho-communist
and very active anti-militarist. Rabbi Zalkind, a close friend of
Rudolf Rocker
, was a prolific
Yiddish
writer and a prominent
Torah
scholar. He argued, that the ethics of the
Talmud
, if properly understood, is closely related to anarchism.
[30]
Zalkind's philosophy was not popular with British Orthodox Jewry and Zalkind was shunned by the community, with
Chief Rabbi Hertz
denying Zalkind's rabbinic credentials and Zalkind being forced to renounce his rabbinic title.
[31]
The Yiddish
anti-authoritarian
and
anti-police
song
In Ale Gasn/Daloy Politsey
dates from the time of the
Russian Revolutions
and continues to be sung by artists who identify with political tendencies like anarchism.
[32]
Many versions of the song have been updated to talk about modern issues such as government corruption, police brutality, and general anarchist themes, along with translating them into languages like English and German. The song is actually a portmanteau of two different Jewish Anarchist songs from the period of the Russian Revolutions, which were combined by
Zalmen Mlotek
for the film "
The Free Voice of Labour: The Jewish Anarchists
", 1980.
[32]
Over the past decade, there has been a renewed interest in Jewish anarchism due to the growth of organizations like
Jewdas
and
Pink Peacock
(UK) and media outlets like the
Treyf
podcast
(Canada). This interest has been aided by the publication of new books on the subject, such as Kenyon Zimmer's
Immigrants against the State
, and the reissuing of documentaries such as
The Free Voice of Labour
,
[33]
which details the final days of the
Fraye Arbeter Shtime
. In January 2019, The
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
organized a special conference on Yiddish anarchism in New York City, which drew over 450 people.
[34]
Jewish anarchist newspapers include
Arbeter Fraynd
,
Burevestnik
,
Chernoe Znamja
(
Black Flag
),
Dos Fraye Vort
,
Fraye Arbeter Shtime
,
Germinal
, and
Kagenna Magazine
.
Many people of Jewish origin, such as
Emma Goldman
,
Alexander Berkman
,
Paul Goodman
,
Murray Bookchin
,
Volin
,
Gustav Landauer
,
David Graeber
, and
Noam Chomsky
have played a role in the history of anarchism. However, as well as these anarchists of Jewish origin, there have also been specifically Jewish anarchist movements, within the
Yiddish
-speaking communities of
Eastern
and
Central Europe
, and the Western cities to which they migrated, from the late nineteenth century until the Second World War. All the members of the first anarchist group in the
Russian Empire
, which was formed in 1903 in
Białystok
, were Jews.
[35]
Different anarchist groups had different views on
Zionism
and the
Jewish question
.
Bernard Lazare
was a key figure in both the
French anarchist movement
and early Zionist movement. The later
Territorialist
movement, especially the
Freeland League
, under the leadership of
Isaac Nachman Steinberg
, was very close to anarchism. Some others, such as
Martin Buber
and
Gershom Scholem
, advocated non-nationalist forms of Zionism, and promoted the idea of creating a
binational
Jewish-Arab federation in
Palestine
. Many contemporary anarchists support the idea of what has been dubbed the "no-state solution".
[36]
Noam Chomsky
has said that, as an anarchist, he ultimately favors such a no-state solution, but, in the short term, feels a two-state solution is the best way out of the present conflict.
[37]
Within Israel there is also the organisation
Anarchists Against the Wall
, which is a
direct action
group composed of
Israeli anarchists
and
anti-authoritarians
who oppose the construction of the
Israeli Gaza Strip barrier
and
Israeli West Bank barrier
.
Taoism
[
edit
]
Many early
Taoists
, such as the influential
Laozi
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.
[38]
It is known, however, that some less influential Taoists, such as
Bao Jingyan
, explicitly advocated anarchy.
[39]
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[
edit
]
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a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
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- ^
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.
Sources
[
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]
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edit
]
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