The Essence of Christianity

by Ludwig Feuerbach

Overview

In this, one of the most influential works of the post-Hegelian era, Feuerbach captures the synthesis that emerges from the dialectical process of a transcending Godhead and the rational and material world.In understanding the true nature of what it means to be fully human, Feuerbach contends that we come face to face with the essence of Christian theology: human beings investing ordinary concepts with divine meaning and significance. The true danger to humanity occurs when theology is given the force of dogma and doctrine. Losing sight of its anthropological underpinnings and dependence upon or emergence from human nature, it then acquires an existence separate from that of humankind.Feuerbach leaves nothing untouched: miracles, the Trinity, Creation, prayer, resurrection, immortality, faith and much more.This classic humanist analysis of Christianity was translated into English by renowned novelist George Eliot.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879755591
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/01/1989
Series:	Great Books in Philosophy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	5.54(w) x 8.28(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) was a highly respected nineteenth-century philosopher who focused on the study of post-Hegelian philosophy, idealism, naturalism, materialism, and positivism. Feuerbach's book, The Essence of Christianity, is noted as an influential atheist text, and helped inspire the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Feuerbach was educated at the University of Berlin.

Table of Contents

Preface by Ludwig Feuerbach
I. 1. The Essential Nature of Man
2. The Essence of Religion Considered Generally
Part I.The True or Anthropological Essence of Religion
II. God as a Being of the Understanding
III. God as a Moral Being or Law
IV. The Mystery of the Incarnation; or, God as Love, as a Being of the Heart
V. The Mystery of the Suffering God
VI. The Mystery of the Trinity and the Mother of God
VII. The Mystery of the Logos and Divine Image
VIII. The Mystery of the Cosmogonical Principle in God
IX. The Mystery of Mysticism, or of Nature in God
X. The Mystery of Providence and Creation out of Nothing
XI. The Significance of the Creation in Judaism
XII. The Omnipotence of Feeling, or the Mystery of Prayer
XIII. The Mystery of Faith—The Mystery of Miracle
XIV. The Mystery of the Resurrection and of the Miraculous Conception
XV. The Mystery of the Christian Christ, or the Personal God
XVI. The Distinction between Christianity and Heathenism
XVII. The Significance of Voluntary Celibacy and Monachism
XVIII. The Christian Heaven, or Personal Immortality
Part II.The False or Theological Essence of Religion
XIX. The Essential Standpoint of Religion
XX. The Contradiction in the Existence of God
XXI. The Contradiction in the Revelation of God
XXII. The Contradiction in the Nature of God in General
XXIII. The Contradiction in the Speculative Doctrine of God
XXIV. The Contradiction in the Trinity
XXV. The Contradiction in the Sacraments
XXVI. The Contradiction of Faith and Love
XXVII. Concluding Application
Appendix
1.The Religious Emotions Purely Human
2.God is Feeling Released from Limits
3.God is the Highest Feeling of Self
4.Distinction between the Pantheistic and Personal God
5.Nature without Interest for Christians
6.In God Man is his Own Object
7.Christianity the Religion of Suffering
8.Mystery of the Trinity
9.Creation out of Nothing
10.Egoism of the Israelitish Religion
11.The Idea of Providence
12.Contradiction of Faith and Reason
13.The Resurrection of Christ
14.The Christian a Supermundane Being
15.The Celibate and Monachism
16.The Christian Heaven
17.What Faith Denies on Earth it Affirms in Heaven
18.Contradictions in the Sacraments
19.Contradiction of Faith and Love
20.Results of the Principle of Faith
21.Contradiction of the God-Man
22.Anthropology the Mystery of Theology