SkipCaptcha, Automoderated users, edit
7,178
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 19:
Line 19: + + + + +
→Marx the Christian
{{cquote|[R]eligion itself teaches us that the ideal being whom all strive to copy sacrificed himself for the sake of mankind, and who would dare to set at nought such judgments?<ref>Karl Marx, “[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-pre/marx/1835-ref.htm Reflections of a Young Man on The Choice of a Profession],” ''Archiv für die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der Arbeiterbewegung'' (1925), reprinted in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume01/index.htm Vol. I] (Trans. Robert Dixon), pp. 3-9</ref>}}
{{cquote|[R]eligion itself teaches us that the ideal being whom all strive to copy sacrificed himself for the sake of mankind, and who would dare to set at nought such judgments?<ref>Karl Marx, “[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-pre/marx/1835-ref.htm Reflections of a Young Man on The Choice of a Profession],” ''Archiv für die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der Arbeiterbewegung'' (1925), reprinted in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume01/index.htm Vol. I] (Trans. Robert Dixon), pp. 3-9</ref>}}
When Marx graduated that September, his diploma read, under the category “Religious knowledge”: “His knowledge of the Christian faith and morals is fairly clear and well grounded; he knows also to some extent the history of the Christian Church.”<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/misc/1835-mat.htm Certificate of Maturity for Pupil of the Gymnasium in Trier], Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume01/index.htm Vol. I] (Trans. Robert Dixon), p.643</ref>
When Marx graduated that September, his diploma read, under the category “Religious knowledge”: “His knowledge of the Christian faith and morals is fairly clear and well grounded; he knows also to some extent the history of the Christian Church.”<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/misc/1835-mat.htm Certificate of Maturity for Pupil of the Gymnasium in Trier], Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume01/index.htm Vol. I] (Trans. Robert Dixon), p.643</ref>
==Bonn University==
However, Marx's Christian education had little lasting impact. Starting the study of law at Bonn University in October 1835, he was not academically successful, and proved to be a disappointment to his parents.<ref>John Spargo , ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=oM0WAAAAYAAJ Karl Marx: His Life and Work]'' (B. W. Huebsch, 1912) , p. 33</ref> He failure to write home, his father lamented, had confirmed his opinion “that in your heart egoism is predominant.”<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/papa/1835-fl1.htm Letter from Heinrich Marx to son Karl], November 8, 1835, in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume01/index.htm Vol. I] (Trans. Robert Dixon), p. 645</ref> After barely a month at university, Marx seems to have embraced atheism. His father disapproved, writing anxiously:
{{cquote|That you will continue to be good morally, I really do not doubt. But a great support for morality is pure faith in God. You know that I am anything but a fanatic. But this faith is a real [require]ment of man sooner or later, and there are moments in life when even the atheist is [involun]tarily drawn to worship the Almighty. And it is common [...], for what Newton, Locke and Leibniz believed, everyone can [...] submit to.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/papa/1835-fl2.htm Letter from Heinrich Marx to son Karl], November 18, 1835, in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume01/index.htm Vol. I] (Trans. Robert Dixon), pp. 645-648</ref>}}
===References===
===References===