The engagement of Marxism with religion (broadly defined) goes back to the very beginning of the history of Marxism and has continued to occupy scholars well into the 21^st century. The Series ‘Marxism and Religion’ seeks to reflect this engagement so as to underscore the relevance of serious and dedicated scholarship on this topic in a renewed effort to propose accessible, pertinent and up-to-date publications, both to specialists and the general public, that take into account both the historical development of the relation between Marxism and religion as well as the changing place of religion in the world today.
While the initial encounter between Marxism and Religion was mainly restricted to its experience within the Judeo-Christian milieu, it soon became also concerned with a wider variety of religions, thus reflecting a cosmopolitan interest, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, etc. and the multiplicity of vernacular religions of Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Americas, but also, without excluding ‘paganism’, the popular religiosity of established ‘world’ religions. The Series aims to reflect this inclusive interest of Marxism towards religions as lived experience of entire groups and communities, while seeing ‘religion’ as an integral part of and in connection with other spheres of human activity, including politics, history, philosophy, economics, cultural and social life. Marxism, however, remains concerned with ‘Religion’ as a theoretical and ideological construct, beyond a specific religious tradition and life-experience itself, while continuing to be attentive to the stimulating interplay between theory and praxis.
As its main goal the Series aims to provide an inspiring hub both to well-established and junior colleagues who wish to propose their reflections on Marxism and Religion from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives (philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, politics and international relations, literary criticism, feminism, study of religions, the arts, development/refugees/subaltern studies and the humanities and social sciences in general) to reflect the wide interest generated by the topic within contemporary scholarship. Equally relevant for the Series is to divulge serious and committed scholarship with interested parties in the world of academia and beyond. Indeed, the political aspect emanating from the interface between Marxism and Religion opens up the Series to the attention of diverse stakeholders, themselves either involved in politics, or as religious communities leaders, or simply interested in new and challenging developments within a given country, cultural milieu or in global society and geopolitics.
Among suggested titles for the Series, we would welcome classical studies going back to the history of Marxism and Religion dealing with the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and others, as well as with more recent authors of the Marxist and Neo-Marxist tradition (e.g. Benjamin, Bloch, Lukács, Adorno, Althusser, Fanon, Horkheimer, Gramsci, Mariátegui, Habermas etc.). Given that also contemporary scholars have a renewed interest in the topic it is a clear sign that ‘Marxism and Religion’ has not exhausted its potential, but it can offer a significant contribution to the debate on 'religion' as it is unfolding in the 21^st century.



Editor(s): Cosimo Zene (zc@soas.ac.uk) and Johan Siebers (J.Siebers@mdx.ac.uk)
Advisory Board: Agata Bielek-Robson; Serap Kayatekin; Jan Rehmann; Peter Thomas; Francesca Antonini; Derek Boothman; Antonio Callari; Anjan Chakrabarti; Giuseppe Cospito; Fabio Frosini; Marcus E. Green; Jan-Peter Hartung; Renate Holub; Francesca Izzo; Cat Moir; Anup Kumar Dhar; Philip Larrey; Massimo Sciarretta; Anna Showstack Sasson; Peter Thompson; Gerald O. West; Lucas Wilson; Santiago Zabala
Staff editorial contact: Megan White (Megan.White@bloomsbury.com)