“The Spirit of Spiritless Conditions”: Religious Growth in the Contemporary World

Abstract

The names of Sigmund Freud and Max Weber can be cited among the prominent authors of the first third of the twentieth century who predicted a weakening demand for religion. Each in their own way, they thought that the increasing diffusion of scientific rationality would promote an inexorable religious decline. But this prediction did not materialize: our twenty-first century is witnessing the proliferation of the most varied types of religious movements. To begin, this chapter chooses some writings by leaders of the Christian movement known as intelligent design to identify its main themes. Then, an investigation is undertaken into the reasons why the “the spirit of spiritless conditions” (an expression used by Marx to designate religion) presents such sharp growth in the final third of the twentieth century. Documents produced by organizations such as the United Nations and OXFAM attest to the general deterioration of living conditions on the planet (a deterioration that precedes the COVID-19 pandemic). The book closes with the presentation of a working hypothesis: religious discourse—with its promise of transcendent bliss—finds propitious space for its current expansion in the absence of a more generous social and political project.