Marx was born in Trier, Germany, in 1818. His father, a lawyer, converted from Judaism to Evangelical Protestantism, very probably for reasons of vocational aspiration (McLellan 1987, 8). Heinrich Marx (ne Hirschel ha-Levi) was a follower of the enlightenment thinkers, especially Voltaire and Rousseau (Cuddihy 1974, 119). His lack of strict religious adherence, and influence by the aforementioned intellectuals, is evident in an 1835 letter to his son.
Karl Marx and his five sisters were baptized into the Evangelical Lutheran Church on 26 August 1824 and he was confirmed in 1834 (Kamenka 1983, lii.). Marx’s early writings suggest that he was familiar with some Christian theology. For example, he wrote a paper on the Gospel of John while at school at the Trier Gymnasium. Marx’s religious interests changed while attending the Hegelian-dominated Universities of Bonn and Berlin. Revealed in a letter to his father, the critical course of much of…
View original post 2,346 more words
Talmidimblogging 