Capitalism as religion: a theoretical review of the relationship between religion and economy in modernity

Walter Benjamin and a sector of Liberation Theology, especially one that articulates around the DEI's School, has several convergences in the critique of capitalism as a religion. This proposition challenges modern assumptions of the theories of religion, requiring a conceptual revision that allows a better understanding of the power of legitimation/fascination or questioning of capitalist political economy. In this article we try to reflect on this revision of the theory of religion and propose an approach that relates Benjamin and the theology of liberation. For this, we propose to exemplify the theoretical-practical challenges of this relation and to go through some studies that resituate the epistemological and political conflicts of the religion with the modernity. Next, we look for elements from the studies of Benjamin and the DEI's School that provide potent analytical tools for the critique of capitalist fetishism as a daily religion. Finally, we synthesize the fundamental task of thinking, from the life of the victims, a necessary discernment of gods that allow us to uncover the mythological-theological reason that characterizes the spirit of the fetish.