Saturday’s Gramsci conference in Amsterdam turned out to be a big success, both in terms of participation and discussions.

With 120 registration, much more than expected, the organisers were forced to turn down people who wanted to participate.

On Saturday the IIRE hosted, in corporation with the Italian Cultural Institute in Amsterdam, a one-day seminar on the legacy and relevance of Gramsci’s thought today.

A Difficult Love Affair? On the Relation Between Marxism and Theology

Roland Boer

October 2007

Abstract: From the moment Marx and Engels became involved with the League of the Just, Marxism has always had a long and often difficult relation with theology and the Bible. Some of the leading figures of the twentieth century were no exception - Althusser, Adorno, Gramsci, Lefebvre, Eagleton are just a few. And in our own day we have the rush of engagements with Paul's Letters in the New Testament by thinkers on the Left. In light of my recent book, Criticism of Heaven: On Marxism and Theology, as well as the next book, Criticism of Religion, I ask why Marxism and theology seem to be so close, why they argue so much, and what it means for both of them. Does it weaken them or are they stronger for the connection?

Two years of work went into making the IIRE's second International Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual (LGB) Strategy Seminar, in August 2000, more broadly representative and more intellectually challenging than the first one in August 1998. And the work paid off.