obtaining an un-ideological truth is given at the point of the greatest meaningless, of despair,
of the broadest self-alienation of human essence. In my pamphlet, "Protestantismus und
Proletarische Situation" (Protestantism and the Proletarian Situation), I have connected this
thought with the Protestant principle and the doctrine concerning the human border-situation.
Of course, this is possible only when the proletariat is used as a typical concept. The actual
proletariat corresponds to the typical, one at times even less than non-proletarian groups, than
intellectuals, for example, who have broken through their class-situation; and from this
border-situation are capable of giving the proletariat the consciousness of itself. The
confusion of the typical with the real proletariat has been one of the most important causes for
the defeat of German Social Democracy.
The conception of Economic Materialism is bound up with the concept of "Marxism" for
general thought. But thus the ambiguity of the word Materialism is intentionally or
unintentionally overlooked. If materialism were necessarily metaphysical materialism, I
should never have been found on the border of Marxism; likewise, Marx himself would be no
Marxist in his struggle with materialism as well as idealism. But Economic Materialism is not
a metaphysics, but a method of historical interpretation. Economic Materialism does not mean
that the "economic" which is itself a complex reality, embracing all sides of human existence,
could be the sole cause of all phases of human life. That would be meaningless. Economic
Materialism shows rather the fundamental significance of economic structures and motives
for the social and intellectual forms and changes of a period. It denies that there is a history of
thought and religion which is independent of economic structure; and, thereby, confirms the
theological insight, neglected by idealism, that man lives on earth and not in heaven;
philosophically expressed, in existence and not in essence.
To a large extent, Marxism can be conceived of as a method of unveiling and can be
compared in this with psychoanalysis. Unveiling is painful for those concerned, nay, even
under certain circumstances, destructive. Ancient Greek tragedy, culminating in the King
Rdipus myth, realizes that. Man defends himself against the unveiling of his actual existence
as long as he can; for when he sees himself without the ideologies that surround his existence,
on which, as with Rdipus, his self-consciousness rests, he collapses. The passionate denial of
Marxism and psychoanalysis, which I have frequently encountered, is "the attempt of social
groups and individual personalities to escape the unveiling which under certain circumstances
would mean annihilation for them. But without such unveiling the ultimate meaning of the
Christian gospel cannot be perceived. Therefore, the theologian most particularly should use
these means in order to unveil human existence instead of upholding a harmonizing idealism.
He can make use of them from the position at the border; he can as I sought myself to do
criticize the partially obsolete terminology of psychoanalysis; he can reject the Utopian and
dogmatic elements of Marxism; he can emphasize the scientific invalidity of numerous single
theories of psychoanalysis and Marxism. He can and must resist metaphysical and ethical
materialism, no matter whether it is or is not legitimately derived from Freud and Marx. But
he must not deprive himself of the power which is contained in both, and which makes for an
unveiling of human existence and a destruction of ideology.
But in Marxism there is not only an unveiling, but also demand and expectation in ideas of
powerful historical impetus. There is prophetic passion in it, whereas idealism, insofar as it is
influenced by the principle of identity, has mystical and sacramental roots. In the middle
section of my book, Die sozialistische Entscheidung (Socialistic Decision), I have tried to
distinguish the prophetic element of Marxism from its rational-scientific terminology, and
thus clarify its far-reaching religious and historical effects. At the same time I have attempted
to attain a new comprehension of the socialistic principle by linking it to the attitude of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]