Carmen Zaldívar

Chapter 3: Power of Nye book

This chapter of the book describes, through the vision of different authors, the
relationship between religion and power.
First, he describes Marx's view that religion is an ideology. Based on a structurally
determined social order in which there are oppressed and oppressors, Marx sees religion
as playing a fundamental role in this exploitation. Contrary to what it seems when one
reads his writings, this philosopher does not believe that religion is evil in itself, but that
by acting as a comfort in the face of suffering, it justifies such oppression. Religion
therefore prevents the oppressed class from rebelling against this situation. However,
Nye finds this view of religion as ideology reductive because he believes that it not only
encourages differences, but also criticizes them at other times, and that it does not
explain all types of social relations (as Marx argues).
The second author he analyses is Gramsci. Like Marx, he advocates a divided society.
However, he explains how a process called “hegemony” causes this division. He defines
hegemony as the means by which power relations take shape in a way that seems
natural. An example would be the emergence of English as the universal language led
by the emergence of America as a world power or the spread of European Christianity
during colonization. For Gramsci, hegemony explains that religion is an ideology within
a cultural and political context.
Althusser, as a third author, believes that ideology, even if it claims to give a certain
vision of reality, is an illusion. The structure of society can exercise its power through
two mechanisms: the first is the repressive state apparatus, which acts through force,
and the second is the ideological state apparatus such as education. However, it is
difficult to distinguish the line between these two means, because in the case of the
Taliban in Afghanistan, is it the use of power through violence or through the ideology
of religion?
The problem also lies in the fact that it is not possible to distinguish between what is
imposed and what is freely chosen. This is explained by the term interpellation, by
which people believe that their actions are free because they have chosen them, but in
reality, they are controlled. After all, ideology cannot be separated from the person, nor
vice versa.
Weber believes that religion can be a factor of economic change. In order to explain
this, he exemplifies it with the case of the rise of capitalism in a society where this
religion values work and material recognition. It does not mean that religion determines
economic power, but that it can have an influence, since all social fields are interrelated.
Finally, explaining Foucault's point of view is more complicated since he does not give
a textual theory of religion and power. He believes that control is not so much exercised
by a power superior to us, but by the surveillance we have. That is, it is the sense of
observation that makes citizens become the controllers of their own actions. He also
defends discourse as a tool of influence because knowledge is power.