Toward a critique of capitalism as quasi-religion: A study of Paul Tillich's critical interpretation of capitalism and modernity

This dissertation paves the way for constructing a religious critique of global capitalistic modernity by a reconstruction and evaluation of Paul Tillich's critical interpretation of capitalism and modernity, which is found to be a persistent theme continuing from his early to his latter works. I examine Tillich's critique of capitalism and show how he is both indebted to and goes beyond Marx. I analyze Tillich's theology of culture and his theological critique of capitalism as demonic. His idea of the demonic as a structure of evil with an ambiguous union of creativity and destructiveness enables a nuanced critique of capitalism and is more adequate than the usual critique of capitalism as idolatry. In the United States, Tillich has sharpened his focus on the cultural dimension of capitalism, which, I maintain, is cultural modernity. I reconstruct Tillich's critical interpretation of cultural modernity, with autonomy, self-sufficient finitude, technical reason, objectification, and dehumanization as key features. His idea of theonomy is ingeniously formulated as both the critique of and answer to these problems of modernity, and this makes Tillich less pessimistic than Weber and the Frankfurt School. All these show Tillich's contemporary relevance for the critique of global capitalistic modernity. With the insights of Jurgen Moltmann and Emile Durkheim, I argue that Tillich's religious critique of capitalism and modernity can be further enhanced by putting more emphasis on the material-economic dimension, by moving from a Eurocentric to a global-critical perspective, and by adopting a social conception of quasi-religion. My constructive proposal critically interprets capitalism as a quasi-religion in a Durkheimian sense, that is, as a unified system of beliefs and practices in relation to sacred things (such as the market). Its beliefs construct a meaning-giving sacred order (including the social imaginary of the market) which constitutes social (even global) solidarity, and its practices reinforce such solidarity. Thus capitalism functions as a global civil religion and as the religious substance of modern society. Features of cultural modernity are expressions of this religious substance. I show the contributions of my constructive proposal and outline my theological response.