ABSTRACT
Eric Voegelin’s study, Die politischen Religionen, appeared in 1938. Devoted
primarily to National Socialism, the work also mentions in passing that political religiosity can also be found in the thought of Marx.1 Soon after
the end of the war, Jacob Taubes furnished the proof that Marx was an
outstanding representative of the philosophical eschatology of Western
civilisation.2 Shortly afterward, Karl Lo¨with’s book, Meaning in History,
emphatically underscored the claim of Marxist thought to point out a path
to ‘salvation’.3 Nevertheless, the question concerning the religious elements
in Marx’s instruction manual for Communism was extensively tabooed
during the boom of neo-Marxism in Western Europe.4
