Secret Religion
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Secret Religion
The Secret Religion is the real, often unconscious, system of thought and action that provides an individual with a frame of orientation and an object of devotion, as distinguished from their official religion—the beliefs they profess but do not actually live by. In Erich Fromm's social psychology, the secret religion names the actual values that govern behavior, motivation, and character structure, however much they may contradict the ideology one claims to hold.[1]
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Erich Fromm defines religion broadly as "any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion."[2][3]. By this definition, fascism, authoritarianism, capitalism, nationalism, science, and even neurosis or the craving for success can function as religions. What matters is not whether the system invokes God, but whether it orients the person in the world and commands their devotion.
From this framework, Fromm distinguishes between the official religion and the secret religion. The official religion is what one professes—the church, the creed, the ideology one claims to hold. The secret religion is what one actually worships through behavior, time, energy, and emotional investment. The two are frequently in contradiction, and the individual is often unaware of the gap.
Fromm writes: "Often, however, individuals are not even aware of the real objects of their personal devotion and mistake their 'official' beliefs for their real, though secret religion. If, for instance, a man worships power while professing a religion of love, the religion of power is his secret religion, while his so-called official religion, for example, Christianity, is only an ideology."[4] The secret religion is thus the actual object of devotion; the official religion is reduced to a rationalizing façade.
The concept is closely tied to Fromm's analysis of idolatry and alienation. The secret religion is the site of modern idolatry: the worship of money, success, power, status, or the state, objects that are not recognized as idols because they are not housed in temples. Fromm also identifies "industrial religion" as a secret religion that arose behind the Christian façade of post-Reformation Europe, rooted in the character structure of modern society but not recognized as religion at all.[5] In earlier work, Fromm used the term "private religion" to describe the same phenomenon: neurosis, craving for success, and money worship as forms of religious devotion that are hidden from the devotee themselves.[6].
The uncovering of one's secret religion is, for Fromm, a necessity for human freedom. Psychoanalysis and humanistic ethics share the task of making the unconscious conscious—of revealing what the person actually serves so that they can choose whether to continue serving it. The secret religion operates in the Having Mode: it fixates the self on external objects of possession and status. The alternative is a humanistic religion of being, where the frame of orientation is grounded in reason and love, and the object of devotion is life itself rather than any idol.
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Footnotes
- ↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976).
- ↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976).
- ↑ Erich Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950).
- ↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 111.
- ↑ Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper & Row, 1976).
- ↑ Erich Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.).