If Theodicy is Always Sociodicy: Bourdieu and the Marxian Critique of Religion

Abstract

For all his critics against Marxism, Bourdieu’s work shows intimate familiarity with the work of Marx, whose ideas pop up in several writings. Bourdieu’s Marx is first and foremost the early Marx of The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and The German Ideology. One of the key concepts Marx provides for Bourdieu’s thinking is surely alienation, but there is something more. The aim of this contribution is to highlight the still partially neglected couple theodicy/sociodicy, which also has its roots in the same writings of Marx. The first paragraph contains an analysis of the relationship between the two terms as established by Bourdieu. Then I will show how this terminological pair becomes salient only by granting Marx the primacy in the triad that he composes with Weber and Durkheim, and which represents Bourdieu’s constant dialectical reference. Once foregrounded these two aspects, religion will appear not just as an essential element in the definition of Bourdieu’s notion of field, but also as an object of permanent critique because it is the foundation of every critique of society and its structures.