Marx's Early Critique Of Religion And Its Practical Significance

At present theoretical studies on Marxist religion views abound in China, but most of these studies are out-bound to the external world. Religion, as the most intense and superstratum expression of the consciousness of human being, are more often directed to the inner world of human being though. Therefore religion has been knotted and bound with philosophy, which also focuses on human being itself, all along for centuries. Only religion tries to remove its own limit by dissident forces, while Marx entrusted the goal of full development of human beings on human beings themselves. This marks the difference of Marxism from any religion, as well as any tradition.This paper precisely takes this divergence as the standing point, traces the origin, development and maturation of Marx's early views on religion through exploration of the connection between Christianity and Western civilization, analyzes the position of Marxist religion views in the whole systematic thinking of Marxism, as well as its theoretical and practical significance, and strives to pull studies on Marxist religion views out of the present sociological sphere, and back again to its philosophical scale.