Kim Il Sung Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Contributions to political theory == {{Main|Juche}} Kim Il Sung's most notable contribution to political theory is his conceptualization of the ''Juche'' idea, originally described as a variant of [[Marxism–Leninism]]. In his writings, Kim engaged with Karl Marx's metaphor that religion is the [[opium of the people]]. He did so both in the context of responding to his comrades who objected to working with religious groups (Chonbulygo and [[Cheondoism|Chondoism]], respectively).<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Boer |first=Roland |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1078879745 |title=Red theology : on the Christian Communist tradition |date=2019 |publisher=[[Haymarket Books]] |isbn=978-90-04-38132-2 |location=Boston |pages=221 |oclc=1078879745}}</ref> In the first instance, Kim replies that a person is "mistaken" if he or she believes Marx's proposition regarding "opium of the people" can be applied in all instances, explaining that if a religion "prays for dealing out divine punishment to Japan and blessing the Korean nation" then it is a "patriotic religion" and its believers are patriots.<ref name=":5" /> In the second, Kim states that Marx's metaphor "must not be construed radically and unilaterally" because Marx was warning against "the temptation of a religious mirage and not opposing believers in general."<ref name=":5" /> Because the communist movement in Korea was fighting a struggle for "national salvation" against Japan, Kim writes that anyone with a similar agenda can join the struggle and that "even a religionist ... must be enrolled in our ranks without hesitation."<ref name=":5" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page