Work · Socialism, Anarchism, Marxism & Critical Theory
God and the State
Fragment published after his death: belief in God means the enslavement of human beings – “if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him”.
Introduction
The text is a fragment of a larger, unfinished work, The Knouto-Germanic Empire and the Social Revolution, written in 1870–71. After Bakunin’s death it was found among his papers and published in 1882 in Geneva by Carlo Cafiero and Élisée Reclus, who gave it its title. Bakunin argues that the idea of God means the abdication of human reason and justice: religion sanctions earthly authority, and priests and scientists alike claim the right to govern in the name of a higher truth. He accepts the authority of specialists – in the matter of boots, that of the bootmaker – but only as freely chosen advice, never as command. Translated into many languages, the pamphlet became one of the best-known anarchist texts.
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Connections
Builds on
- The Essence of Christianity1841 · Ludwig Feuerbach
More works by Mikhail Bakunin
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