Reflections on Upholding and Developing the Marxist View of Religion in the New Era

In China, whether it is correctly understanding and handling practical religious issues or conducting research in religious studies, adhering to the guidance of Marxism and the Marxist view of religion is a consistent requirement of the Party Central Committee. The times are advancing, society is developing, and the religious sphere both at home and abroad will inevitably undergo major changes accordingly. Entering the New Era, in the face of new situations and new problems in the religious field and religious research, it is particularly important to further uphold and develop the Marxist view of religion. This is also an important task for further strengthening the disciplinary construction of Marxist religious studies.

在我国，无论是正确认识和处理现实宗教问题，还是开展宗教学的研究，坚持马克思主义和马克思主义宗教观的指导，是党中央的一贯要求。时代在前进，社会在发展，国内外宗教领域也必然随之不断发生重大变化。进入新时代，面对宗教及宗教研究领域的新情况新问题，进一步坚持和发展马克思主义宗教观尤为重要，这也是进一步加强马克思主义宗教学学科建设的重要任务。

In the study of religion, people can select different perspectives and adopt different methods based on specific issues, from different worldviews, values, and disciplines. Different approaches to religious research should understand and respect each other. Only in this way can religious research truly let a hundred schools of thought contend and genuinely promote the flourishing and development of religious studies. For the research teams of the Party’s and the state’s religious research institutions, as well as the teaching and research institutions of religious studies in higher education within the national education system, studying the theory, history, and culture of religion, and correctly understanding and handling practical religious issues, must adhere to the guidance of the Marxist view of religion. This is an unshakable principle.

对宗教的研究，人们可以针对特定的问题，从不同的世界观、价值观、学科等选取不同的角度，采取不同的方法。宗教研究的不同方式，应该互相理解和尊重。只有这样，宗教的研究才能真正百家争鸣，才能真正促进宗教学的繁荣发展。对党和国家的宗教学研究机构、对国民教育的高等学校的宗教学教学研究机构的研究队伍来说，研究宗教的理论和历史文化、正确认识和处理现实的宗教问题，必须坚持马克思主义宗教观的指导，这是一条不可动摇的原则。

To uphold and develop the Marxist view of religion, it is first necessary to comprehensively grasp the meaning of the Marxist view of religion.

坚持和发展马克思主义宗教观，首先需要全面把握马克思主义宗教观的含义。

A view of religion, as the term suggests, is people’s basic understanding of religion and religious issues, along with the attitudes toward religion and the methods for solving religious problems expressed on the basis of that understanding. The Marxist view of religion was founded by Marx and Engels and has since undergone a process of continuous enrichment and development. It is the most scientific view of religion to date.

宗教观，顾名思义就是人们对宗教和宗教问题的基本认识，以及在这种认识基础上表明的对宗教的态度和提出的解决宗教问题的办法。马克思主义宗教观由马克思、恩格斯创立，之后又经历了不断丰富发展的过程，是迄今为止最为科学的宗教观。

The Marxist view of religion is essentially the historical materialist view of religion. Its fundamental difference from all previous views of religion lies in the fact that it is built on the foundation of dialectical materialism and historical materialism—the most scientific worldview and methodology to date—established by Marx and Engels. According to the basic principles of this philosophy, religion, as a form of social consciousness, as part of humanity’s spiritual life, and as a superstructure of social thought, is a distorted reflection of the process of human social life in people’s minds. It is ultimately determined by the contradictory movement of productive forces and relations of production, and of the economic base and superstructure, in human society. This grasps the essence of religion more scientifically than any previous view of religion, thereby achieving a fundamental transformation in the history of views on religion.

马克思主义宗教观本质上就是历史唯物主义宗教观。它同以往一切宗教观的根本区别，就在于它是建立在马克思、恩格斯所创立的辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义这一迄今为止最为科学的世界观和方法论的基础上。按照这一哲学的基本原理，宗教作为一种社会意识，作为人类精神生活的一部分，作为一种社会思想上层建筑，是人类的社会生活过程在人们头脑中的曲折反映，归根到底为人类社会的生产力和生产关系、经济基础和上层建筑的矛盾运动所决定。这就比以往任何一种宗教观都更科学地把握了宗教的本质，从而实现了宗教观历史上的根本变革。

The Marxist view of religion is a theoretical system that advances with the times. In the mid-to-late 19th century, in the process of founding the scientific worldview and leading the European working class in the struggle to overthrow the old capitalist system and strive for socialism, Marx and Engels inevitably had to study and break free from the constraints of religious thought, which then dominated the ideological sphere. They formed their own new historical materialist view of religion, expressed their basic attitude toward religion, and further proposed principles and guidelines for handling religious issues within the socialist movement. In the early 20th century, Lenin, in the course of leading the Russian working class to victory in the socialist revolution, establishing Soviet power, and engaging in the initial practice of socialist revolution and construction, developed the Marxist view of religion into a relatively complete system of theory and policy, based on his own new research on religion and new experience in handling religious issues in the Russian revolution. The Communist Party of China has also attached great importance to religious issues in the process of leading China’s revolution and construction. By integrating the Marxist view of religion with China’s national conditions and the reality of religion, it has not only basically succeeded in handling religious issues but has also further enriched and developed the Marxist view of religion.

马克思主义宗教观是与时俱进的理论体系。马克思和恩格斯在19世纪的中后期，在创立科学世界观和领导欧洲工人阶级进行推翻资本主义旧制度、争取社会主义的斗争过程中，不可避免地要研究并破除当时居于思想领域主导地位的宗教思想的束缚，形成自己崭新的历史唯物主义宗教观，表明对宗教的基本态度，并进一步提出处理社会主义运动中宗教问题的方针原则。列宁在20世纪初领导俄国工人阶级争取社会主义革命的胜利、建立苏维埃政权以及进行社会主义革命和建设的初步实践中，以自己对宗教研究的新成果和处理俄国革命中宗教问题的新经验，将马克思主义宗教观发展成一个较为完整的理论方针的体系。中国共产党在领导中国革命和建设的过程中也十分重视宗教问题，将马克思主义宗教观同中国国情和宗教的实际相结合，不仅基本成功地处理好了宗教问题，而且进一步丰富和发展了马克思主义宗教观。

Based on the above, the Marxist view of religion can be understood from both narrow and broad perspectives. In the narrow sense, the Marxist view of religion mainly refers to Marx and Engels’ scientific theory on religious issues, the Leninist view of religion mainly refers to Lenin’s thought on religious issues, and also includes the view of religion of the Chinese Communists. In the broad sense, it generally refers to the historical materialist view of religion that continuously advances with the times. When we emphasize the establishment of the Marxist view of religion today, we understand it in this broad sense.

依据上述，马克思主义宗教观可以从狭义和广义两方面理解。狭义的理解，即马克思主义宗教观主要是马克思、恩格斯关于宗教问题的科学理论，列宁主义宗教观主要是列宁关于宗教问题的思想，还有中国共产党人的宗教观等。广义的理解则泛指不断与时俱进的历史唯物主义宗教观。我们今天强调要树立马克思主义宗教观，就是从广义上来理解的。

The Marxist view of religion is the unity of its worldview and methodology, basic principles, and atheism, and it possesses a distinct Party spirit. It is the view of religion of Marxists and Communists. In China, the Marxist view of religion represents the direction of scientific understanding of religion, and its dominant position should be established. Since the founding of New China, especially over the past 40-plus years of reform and opening up, under the requirements and support of the Party and the state, academic research on the Marxist view of religion has accumulated many achievements and made great progress. However, it is also necessary to recognize that there are differences of opinion in understanding and interpreting the Marxist view of religion. Therefore, in the New Era, the Marxist view of religion requires re-examination, and the precious legacy of the Marxist view of religion needs to be revisited.

马克思主义宗教观是其世界观方法论、基本原理和无神论的统一，具有鲜明的党性。它是马克思主义者、共产党人的宗教观。在我国，马克思主义宗教观代表着科学认识宗教的方向，应该确立马克思主义宗教观的主导地位。新中国成立以后，特别是改革开放40多年来，在党和国家的要求和支持下，学界的马克思主义宗教观研究积累了很多成果，取得了巨大成绩。但也需要看到，在认识和理解马克思主义宗教观方面，也存在不同观点的分歧。因此，新时代对马克思主义宗教观需要再认识，需要重温马克思主义宗教观的宝贵遗产。

The basic content of the Marxist view of religion (in the narrow sense) can be summarized in two main aspects. First, the basic theory of religion. Marx and Engels used the dialectical materialism and historical materialism they founded to explain religion, revealing that all religious concepts of deities are nothing but a fantastical, distorted reflection of external forces dominating people’s daily lives in their minds. The causes of the emergence and existence of religion must be sought in the process of human material life, and changes in the conditions of human social history must be used to explain the development and change of religion. The social role of religion is dual: religious suffering is both an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. The extinction of religion is a law of social development, but it will undergo a very long and tortuous process. Second, the attitude of the proletarian party toward religion. Marx and Engels emphasized that within the Communist Party, scientific socialism and religion are fundamentally opposed in worldview. At the state level, genuine freedom of religious belief must be granted to the people, and the separation of church and state, and the separation of secular schools from the church, must be implemented. The “leftist” error of attempting to eliminate religion by violence in a short period within the socialist movement must be resolutely corrected.

马克思主义宗教观（狭义的）的基本内容概括起来主要有两方面。一是关于宗教的基本理论。马克思、恩格斯运用他们所创立的辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义说明宗教，揭示出一切宗教宣扬的神灵观念都不过是支配人们日常生活的外部力量在人们头脑中的幻想的颠倒反映，必须在人类物质生活过程中寻找宗教产生及存在的原因，要用人类社会历史条件的变化去说明宗教的发展变化。宗教的社会作用是双重的，宗教苦难既是现实苦难的表现，也是对现实苦难的抗议。宗教消亡是社会发展的规律，但要经历一个十分漫长的曲折过程。二是无产阶级政党对待宗教的态度。马克思、恩格斯强调，在共产党内科学社会主义与宗教在世界观上是根本对立的。从国家层面要对民众实行真正的宗教信仰自由，必须实行教会同国家分离、世俗学校同教会分离，坚决纠正社会主义运动中企图以暴力短时期消灭宗教的“左”倾错误。

The Leninist view of religion is the Marxist view of religion with Russian characteristics. Its basic content includes, first, the inheritance of the basic theory of religion from Marx and Engels, requiring that religion be studied under the guidance of historical materialism. Second, it systematizes the basic principles of the proletarian party for solving religious problems. Religion is a kind of spiritual劣质酒 [n], a spiritual tool for the exploiting classes to maintain their rule. Lenin pointed out that scientific socialism and religion cannot be reconciled in worldview, that handling religious issues must be subordinated to the general tasks of the socialist cause, and that the people must be granted thorough freedom of religious belief. Lenin also proposed the major principle that religion is a private matter for the state but not for the workers’ party, and insisted that Party members carry out propaganda and education on “atheism” among the masses.

列宁主义宗教观是俄国特色的马克思主义宗教观，其基本内容一是对马克思、恩格斯宗教基本理论的继承，必须以历史唯物主义为指导研究宗教，二是对无产阶级政党解决宗教问题基本原则加以系统化。宗教是一种精神上的劣质酒，是剥削阶级维护自己统治的精神工具。列宁指出，在世界观上科学社会主义与宗教不能调和，处理宗教问题要服从社会主义事业总任务，对人民实行彻底的宗教信仰自由。列宁还提出，宗教对国家来说是私人的事情、对工人政党来说就不是私事的重大原则，要坚持党员在人民群众中进行“无神论”宣传教育。

In the New Era, the above-mentioned basic principles of the Marxist view of religion cannot be negated, but neither can a dogmatic attitude be adopted toward them. First, it must be made clear that throughout the entire revolutionary careers of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, the question of religion was not the main issue they focused on. If we take the formation of the Marxist view of religion as beginning with the article "Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right," published in February 1844, and ending with Lenin’s article "On the Significance of Militant Materialism," published in March 1922, the time span is nearly 80 years. Among these, the works that touch on religious content to varying degrees number over 100 by Marx and Engels and over 150 by Lenin, which constitute a very small proportion of their vast body of writings. Moreover, works specifically devoted to the topic of religion are even fewer; basically, they expressed their views on religious issues only when encountering them in the course of discussing philosophy, economics, scientific socialism, and other subjects. Second, as proletarian revolutionary mentors, Marx, Engels, and Lenin studied religious issues primarily to win victory for the socialist cause and to provide the working-class party with an ideological weapon for understanding and resolving religious questions. They mainly studied religion and religious issues from the perspectives of ideology and social politics, using the viewpoints of class and class struggle and the method of class analysis, and their critique of the negative role of religion in maintaining the old exploitative system was intense. They were not specialized scholars of religion, and one cannot demand that they conduct a comprehensive academic study of every aspect of religion, especially under the social conditions of the time when the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie was extremely fierce, including the cultural aspects of religion. Third, the views of religion held by Marx, Engels, and Lenin played an important scientific guiding role in their era, but they also had unavoidable limitations of the times. Regarding how a working-class party in power should correctly understand and resolve religious issues under socialist conditions, Marx and Engels had no personal practice, and Lenin had only preliminary practice. They could not have specifically predicted what changes religion would undergo under future socialist conditions, nor could they have concretely proposed all the methods for resolving religious issues under socialist conditions. Although some of their specific judgments on religious issues under the particular conditions of their time are no longer fully applicable today, the scientific nature of the basic principles expounded in their view of religion is enduring and still possesses strong vitality to this day.

新时代，对马克思主义宗教观的上述基本原理不能否定，但又不能采取教条主义的态度。首先要明确，在马克思、恩格斯、列宁的全部革命生涯中，宗教问题并不是他们关注的主要问题。如果从马克思主义宗教观形成的标志，即1844年2月发表的《〈黑格尔法哲学批判〉导言》一文算起，到列宁1922年3月发表《论战斗唯物主义的意义》一文止，时间跨度近80年。其中不同程度涉及宗教内容的著作，马克思、恩格斯有100余篇，列宁有150余篇，这在他们浩如烟海的著作中所占的分量是很少的。而其中专门以宗教为题的著作更少，基本都是在论述哲学、经济学、科学社会主义等问题时遇到宗教问题才发表对宗教问题的看法。其次，马克思、恩格斯、列宁作为无产阶级的革命导师，对宗教问题的研究主要是为了争取社会主义事业的胜利，为工人阶级政党提供认识和解决宗教问题的思想武器，其主要从意识形态、社会政治的角度，以阶级、阶级斗争的观点和阶级分析的方法研究宗教和宗教问题，对宗教维护旧的剥削制度的负面作用的批判色彩浓烈。他们不是专门的宗教学家，不能苛求他们对宗教的方方面面，特别是在当时无产阶级对资产阶级斗争十分激烈的社会条件下，对宗教文化进行全面的学术性的研究。再次，马克思、恩格斯、列宁的宗教观在他们所处的时代发挥了重要的科学指导作用，当然，也有不可避免的时代局限性。对工人阶级政党执政后如何正确认识和解决好社会主义条件下的宗教问题，马克思、恩格斯没有亲身的实践，列宁也只是有初步的实践。他们都不可能具体预测未来社会主义条件下宗教将发生什么样的变化，不可能很具体地提出解决社会主义条件下宗教问题的所有办法。尽管对于今天来说，他们针对当时特定条件下宗教问题的一些具体论断已不完全适用，但是他们的宗教观阐述的基本原理的科学性是长存的，至今仍然有着强大生命力。

Marxists and Communists after Lenin continued to enrich the Marxist view of religion based on new realities of religious issues during the socialist period. Among them, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union left behind more historical lessons, while it was ultimately the Communist Party of China that achieved success.

列宁以后的马克思主义者和共产党人，继续根据社会主义时期宗教问题新的实际丰富了马克思主义宗教观，其中苏联共产党留下的更多是历史教训，最终走向成功的还是中国共产党。

(The author is a professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC [n])

（作者系中共中央党校教授）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心