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In The Essence of Christianity-this is the classic 1853 translation
of the 1841 German original-Feuerbach discusses the "true or
anthropological" root of religion, exploring how everything from
the nature of God to the mysteries of mysticism and prayer can be
viewed through such a prism. He goes on to examine the "false"
essences of religion, including contradictions in ideas of the
existence of a deity, and then how God and religion are merely
expressions of human emotion. This is essential background reading
for understanding everything from Marx's Communist Manifesto to
modern apolitical philosophies of atheism.
Band 20 erfasst den Briefwechsel Feuerbachs aus den Jahren
1853-1861, in dessen Mittelpunkt die "Theogonie nach den Quellen
des klassischen, hebraischen und christlichen Altertums" (1857) als
Vollendung der anthropologischen religionskritischen Theorie und
die eigene distanzierte Position im so genannten
Materialismus-Streit jener Jahre stehen."
Band 11 schliesst mit den letzten, noch zu seinen Lebzeiten
erschienenen Arbeiten Feuerbachs die Reihe der "Kleinen Schriften"
ab. Neben neu erschlossenen biographischen Beitragen, einem
Nekrolog auf den Arzt und Freund F. W. Heidenreich und Nachtragen
zur "Theogonie nach den Quellen des klassischen, hebraischen und
christlichen Altertums" von 1857 enthalt der Band vor allem
Auseinandersetzungen mit der Philosophie und Ethik Schopenhauers,
dem Neukantianismus, mit Hegels Philosophie und Psychologie sowie
mit dem mechanizistischen und naturwissenschaftlichen
Materialismus."
Originally published in 1845, this concise critique formed the
basis of thirty later lectures delivered in 1848 by Ludwig
Feuerbach, one of Germany's most influential humanist philosophers.
In The Essence of Religion Feuerbach applied the analysis expounded
in The Essence of Christianity (1841) to religion as a whole. The
main thrust of Feuerbach's argument is aptly summed up in the
original subtitle to this work: "God the Image of Man. Man's
Dependence upon Nature the Last and Only Source of Religion."
Feuerbach reviews key aspects of religious belief and in each case
explains them as imaginative elaborations of the primal awe and
sense of dependence that humans experience in the face of nature's
power and mystery. Rather than humans being created in the image of
God, the situation is quite the reverse: "All theology is
anthropology," he says, and "the being whom man sets over against
himself as a separate supernatural existence is his own
being."
Feuerbach goes on to argue that the attributes of God are no more
than reflections of the various needs of human nature. Further, as
human civilization has advanced, the role of God has gradually
diminished. In ancient times, before human beings had any
scientific understanding of the way nature works, divine powers
were seen behind every natural manifestation, from lightning bolts
to the change of seasons. By contrast, in the modern era, when an
in-depth understanding of natural causes has been achieved, there
is no longer any need to imagine God behind the workings of nature:
"He who for his God has no other material than that which natural
science, philosophy, or natural observation generally furnishes to
him . . . ought to be honest enough also to abstain from using the
name of God, for a natural principle is always a natural essence
and not what constitutes the idea of a God."
Feuerbach's naturalistic philosophy had a decisive influence on
Karl Marx and radical theologians such as Bruno Bauer and David
Friedrich Strauss. His incisive critique remains a challenge to
religion to this day.
Feuerbachs "Theogonie" ist die Frucht sechsjahriger Studien, die er
im Anschluss an die 1848/49 in Heidelberg gehaltenen "Vorlesungen
uber das Wesen der Religion" begonnen hatte. Die Schrift vollendet
seine philosophisch-anthropologische Theorie vom Wesen der
Religion. Seine Religionsanalyse gelangt hier, unter philologisch
meisterhafter Benutzung literarischer Zeugnisse des Altertums, zur
Theorie des "theogonischen Wunsches": Die Vorstellungswelt der
Religion wird als phantastische gedankliche Schopfung blossen
menschlichen Wunschdenkens verstanden, das aus schmerzlich
empfundener menschlicher Ohnmacht und Bedurftigkeit im irdischen
Dasein entspringt. Damit wird die Religion, gleich welcher
Erscheinungsform, ihrem Ursprunge nach als allusionarer Akt der
Wunscherfullung begriffen; ihr wird ein ausschliesslich
subjektiv-menschlicher Ursprung zuerkannt."
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