The Essence Of Religion

A New 2023 translation into English from the original manuscript, with an introduction, glossary of Feuerbachian terminology and a timeline of his life and works. "The Essence of Religion" is a philosophical work published in 1841 that critiques the nature and origins of religious belief, arguing for a Darwinian-historical origin for religion, and a materialistic worldview. In this work, Feuerbach argues that religion is a product of human imagination and projection, and that its true essence can only be understood by examining the human mind and its relationship to the natural world. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche both take their satirical criticism about religion from Feuerbach, and every aspect of Marxism can be found here in Marx's favorite Philosopher. Feuerbach is a critical figure in the development of not merely Marxism, but Materialistic Humanism in general. Feuerbach is critical to understanding Marx. This is Volume VI in the 2023 The Complete Works of Ludwig Feuerbach by Newcomb Livraria Press

As we move away from worn-out dogma from both the religious and scientific realms toward a contemporary synthesis of understanding about our existence, Christophor's refreshing and comprehensive analysis of major religions in light of the profound lessons from numerous NDE journeyers offers a rich new tapestry of understanding that I find most valuable.

This book, translated for the first time into English, presents the major statement of the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach. Here, in his most systematic work, Feuerbach’s thought on religion and on the philosophy of nature achieves its full maturity. Central to the thought of Feuerbach is the concept that man not God is the creator, that divinities are representations of man’s innermost feelings and ideas. Philosophy should turn from theology and speculative rationalism to sound factual anthropology. “My aim in these Lectures,” writes Feuerbach, “is to transform friends of God into friends of man, believers into thinkers, worshippers into workers, candidates for the other world into students of this world, Christians, who on their own confession are half-animal and half-angel, into men––whole men.”

The Nobel Peace Prize–winning doctor, theologian, and missionary explores the essence of faith in this masterful early work on Kantian metaphysics. Famous for his medical missionary work in what is now the West African country of Gabon, Albert Schweitzer was an accomplished theologian, philosopher, and international bestselling author. While studying for his PhD at the Sorbonne, Schweitzer developed his views on theology through an analysis of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of religion. In The Essence of Faith, Schweitzer explores Kantian ideas to arrive at an inspiring meditation on God, faith, and the limits of human understanding. Both an accessible introduction to Schweitzer’s theology and a strikingly original approach to Kant’s writing and thought, The Essence of Faith is a slim volume of profound ideas.

This is a collection of Bowne’s most important sermons, some of which appeared in other collections. It covers a remarkably large number of aspects of religion and faith, and summarises well the thought and achievements of this great preacher. The topics covered range from the role of Jesus Christ in religion and in our own lives, to the activities of the church, to Christianity as a doctrine, to the ways in which we can enjoy a healthy and successful life. The book will appeal to many, from the scholar to the relative newcomer to religion. It is lucid and flows easily, yet not without giving the reader much food for thought, and a new angle on many things he has probably thought and enquired about. In the words of the author’s wife, “ ‘if,’ to use the author’s own words, ‘the great end of religion is a developed soul, a soul with a deep sense of God, a soul in which faith, courage, and resolution are at their highest,’ then the writer of these sermons had in this life entered into the fullest realisation of all he taught to others.” And most readers will probably feel this after reading a few words of the first sermon.

"Originally published in 1845, this digest of thirty lectures by one of Germany's most influential humanist philosophers extends the critique expounded in The Essence of Christianity (1841) to religion as a whole." The main thrust of Feuerbach's analysis of religion 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 man 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."