The Essence of Christianity

Couverture
Cosimo, Inc., 1 déc. 2008 - 364 pages
German philosopher and anthropologist LUDWIG ANDREAS VON FEUERBACH (1804-1872) was a powerful influence on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Feuerbach's atheism is reflected in their socialist philosophies, and that humanized theology-essentially, a rational approach to understanding concepts of God and Christianity-gets its greatest exploration here. 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.

À l'intérieur du livre

Pages sélectionnées

Table des matières

Introduction
1
PART I
33
God as a Moral Being or Law
44
The Mystery of the Incarnation or God as Love
50
The Mystery of the Suffering God
59
The Mystery of the Trinity and the Mother of God
65
The Mystery of the Logos and Divine Image
74
The Mystery of the Cosmogonical Principle in God
80
APPENDIX
279
The Religious Emotions Purely Human
281
God is Feeling Released from Limits
283
God is the Highest Feeling of Self
284
Distinction between the Pantheistic and Personal God
285
Nature without Interest for Christians
287
In God Man is his Own Object
289
Christianity the Religion of Suffering
292

The Mystery of Mysticism or of Nature in God
87
The Omnipotence of Feeling or the Mystery of Prayer
120
The Mystery of FaithThe Mystery of Miracle
126
The Mystery of the Resurrection and of the Miraculous Conception
135
The Mystery of the Christian Christ or the Personal God
140
The Distinction between Christianity and Heathenism
150
The Significance of Voluntary Celibacy and Monachism
160
The Christian Heaven or Personal Immortality
170
PART II
185
The Contradiction in the Existence of God
197
The Contradiction in the Revelation of God
204
The Contradiction in the Nature of God in General
213
The Contradiction in the Speculative Doctrine of God
226
The Contradiction in the Trinity
232
The Contradiction in the Sacraments
236
The Contradiction of Faith and Love
247
Concluding Application
270
Mystery of the Trinity
293
Creation out of Nothing
297
Egoism of the Israelitish Religion
298
The Idea of Providence
299
Contradiction of Faith and Reason
304
The Resurrection of Christ
306
The Christian a Supermundane Being
307
The Celibate and Monachism
308
The Christian Heaven
315
What Faith Denies on Earth it Affirms in Heaven
316
Contradictions in the Sacraments
317
Contradiction of Faith and Love
320
Results of the Principle of Faith
326
Contradiction of the GodMan
334
Anthropology the Mystery of Theology
336
Droits d'auteur

Autres éditions - Tout afficher

Expressions et termes fréquents

À propos de l'auteur (2008)

George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans on a Warwickshire farm in England, where she spent almost all of her early life. She received a modest local education and was particularly influenced by one of her teachers, an extremely religious woman whom the novelist would later use as a model for various characters. Eliot read extensively, and was particularly drawn to the romantic poets and German literature. In 1849, after the death of her father, she went to London and became assistant editor of the Westminster Review, a radical magazine. She soon began publishing sketches of country life in London magazines. At about his time Eliot began her lifelong relationship with George Henry Lewes. A married man, Lewes could not marry Eliot, but they lived together until Lewes's death. Eliot's sketches were well received, and soon after she followed with her first novel, Adam Bede (1859). She took the pen name "George Eliot" because she believed the public would take a male author more seriously. Like all of Eliot's best work, The Mill on the Floss (1860), is based in large part on her own life and her relationship with her brother. In it she begins to explore male-female relations and the way people's personalities determine their relationships with others. She returns to this theme in Silas Mariner (1861), in which she examines the changes brought about in life and personality of a miser through the love of a little girl. In 1863, Eliot published Romola. Set against the political intrigue of Florence, Italy, of the 1490's, the book chronicles the spiritual journey of a passionate young woman. Eliot's greatest achievement is almost certainly Middlemarch (1871). Here she paints her most detailed picture of English country life, and explores most deeply the frustrations of an intelligent woman with no outlet for her aspirations. This novel is now regarded as one of the major works of the Victorian era and one of the greatest works of fiction in English. Eliot's last work was Daniel Deronda. In that work, Daniel, the adopted son of an aristocratic Englishman, gradually becomes interested in Jewish culture and then discovers his own Jewish heritage. He eventually goes to live in Palestine. Because of the way in which she explored character and extended the range of subject matter to include simple country life, Eliot is now considered to be a major figure in the development of the novel. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery, North London, England, next to her common-law husband, George Henry Lewes.

Informations bibliographiques