The Essence of Christianity

The Essence of Christianity PDF Author: Ludwig Feuerbach
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 048611922X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Did God create man? Or did man create God? Famed German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach explores the answer in this, his most influential work, published in German in 1841 and translated by celebrated English novelist George Eliot. Using Biblical references, dialectics, and ideas from some of the world's greatest thinkers, he confronts believers with his cogent explanation. Approaching religion from a humanistic perspective, Feuerbach explores the idea that divinity is an outward projection of our idealistic human nature. Asserting that nothing is higher than the perfection found in mankind, he proposes that a Supreme Being was created by man seeking comfort and relief from a hostile world, challenging tenets of Christianity from creation and the resurrection to faith and miracles. Feuerbach's critique of Hegelian idealism excited immediate international attention — influencing Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Engels in particular. Thought-provoking and utterly compelling, this historically significant polemic is must reading for lifelong students of religion and philosophy.

The Essence of Christianity

The Essence of Christianity PDF Author: Ludwig Feuerbach
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 048611922X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Get Book Here

Book Description
Did God create man? Or did man create God? Famed German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach explores the answer in this, his most influential work, published in German in 1841 and translated by celebrated English novelist George Eliot. Using Biblical references, dialectics, and ideas from some of the world's greatest thinkers, he confronts believers with his cogent explanation. Approaching religion from a humanistic perspective, Feuerbach explores the idea that divinity is an outward projection of our idealistic human nature. Asserting that nothing is higher than the perfection found in mankind, he proposes that a Supreme Being was created by man seeking comfort and relief from a hostile world, challenging tenets of Christianity from creation and the resurrection to faith and miracles. Feuerbach's critique of Hegelian idealism excited immediate international attention — influencing Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Engels in particular. Thought-provoking and utterly compelling, this historically significant polemic is must reading for lifelong students of religion and philosophy.

The Essence of Christianity

The Essence of Christianity PDF Author: Ludwig Feuerbach
Publisher: LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER, & CO
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Example in this ebook § 1. The Essential Nature of Man. Religion has its basis in the essential difference between man and the brute—the brutes have no religion. It is true that the old uncritical writers on natural history attributed to the elephant, among other laudable qualities, the virtue of religiousness; but the religion of elephants belongs to the realm of fable. Cuvier, one of the greatest authorities on the animal kingdom, assigns, on the strength of his personal observations, no higher grade of intelligence to the elephant than to the dog. But what is this essential difference between man and the brute? The most simple, general, and also the most popular answer to this question is—consciousness:—but consciousness in the strict sense; for the consciousness implied in the feeling of self as an individual, in discrimination by the senses, in the perception and even judgment of outward things according to definite sensible signs, cannot be denied to the brutes. Consciousness in the strictest sense is present only in a being to whom his species, his essential nature, is an object of thought. The brute is indeed conscious of himself as an individual—and he has accordingly the feeling of self as the common centre of successive sensations—but not as a species: hence, he is without that consciousness which in its nature, as in its name, is akin to science. Where there is this higher consciousness there is a capability of science. Science is the cognisance of species. In practical life we have to do with individuals; in science, with species. But only a being to whom his own species, his own nature, is an object of thought, can make the essential nature of other things or beings an object of thought. Hence the brute has only a simple, man a twofold life: in the brute, the inner life is one with the outer; man has both an inner and an outer life. The inner life of man is the life which has relation to his species, to his general, as distinguished from his individual, nature. Man thinks—that is, he converses with himself. The brute can exercise no function which has relation to its species without another individual external to itself; but man can perform the functions of thought and speech, which strictly imply such a relation, apart from another individual. Man is himself at once I and thou; he can put himself in the place of another, for this reason, that to him his species, his essential nature, and not merely his individuality, is an object of thought. Religion being identical with the distinctive characteristic of man, is then identical with self-consciousness—with the consciousness which man has of his nature. But religion, expressed generally, is consciousness of the infinite; thus it is and can be nothing else than the consciousness which man has of his own—not finite and limited, but infinite nature. A really finite being has not even the faintest adumbration, still less consciousness, of an infinite being, for the limit of the nature is also the limit of the consciousness. The consciousness of the caterpillar, whose life is confined to a particular species of plant, does not extend itself beyond this narrow domain. It does, indeed, discriminate between this plant and other plants, but more it knows not. A consciousness so limited, but on account of that very limitation so infallible, we do not call consciousness, but instinct. Consciousness, in the strict or proper sense, is identical with consciousness of the infinite; a limited consciousness is no consciousness; consciousness is essentially infinite in its nature.1 The consciousness of the [3]infinite is nothing else than the consciousness of the infinity of the consciousness; or, in the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature. To be continue in this ebook

Lectures on the Essence of Religion

Lectures on the Essence of Religion PDF Author: Ludwig Feuerbach
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532646232
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
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.”

Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith

Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith PDF Author: Gianni Vattimo
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231520417
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
The debate over the place of religion in secular, democratic societies dominates philosophical and intellectual discourse. These arguments often polarize around simplistic reductions, making efforts at reconciliation impossible. Yet more rational stances do exist, positions that broker a peace between relativism and religion in people's public, private, and ethical lives. Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith advances just such a dialogue, featuring the collaboration of two major philosophers known for their progressive approach to this issue. Seeking unity over difference, Gianni Vattimo and René Girard turn to Max Weber, Eric Auerbach, and Marcel Gauchet, among others, in their exploration of truth and liberty, relativism and faith, and the tensions of a world filled with new forms of religiously inspired violence. Vattimo and Girard ultimately conclude that secularism and the involvement (or lack thereof) of religion in governance are, in essence, produced by Christianity. In other words, Christianity is "the religion of the exit from religion," and democracy, civil rights, the free market, and individual freedoms are all facilitated by Christian culture. Through an exchange that is both intimate and enlightening, Vattimo and Girard share their unparalleled insight into the relationships among religion, modernity, and the role of Christianity, especially as it exists in our multicultural world.

Essence of Christianity. Two Essays

Essence of Christianity. Two Essays PDF Author: Anders Nygren
Publisher: Reformation Pub
ISBN: 9781604163872
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
First published in 1922 and 1932, these two essays provide an excellent introduction to Bishop Nygren's philosophy of religion and what enables it to endure.

Principles of the Philosophy of the Future

Principles of the Philosophy of the Future PDF Author: Ludwig Feuerbach
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780915145270
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Principles Of The Philosophy Of The Future by Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach. Translated by Manfred Vogel

In Defence of Christianity

In Defence of Christianity PDF Author: Brian Hebblethwaite
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199210756
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
This short book of apologetics originated in the two Gifford lectures which I contributed to a joint series in Glasgow in September 2001 and the four Hensley Hanson lectures which I delivered in Oxford in May 2002. Much rewriting and reordering has taken place"--Pref

Mercy

Mercy PDF Author: Cardinal Walter Kasper
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 1587683652
Category : Christian life
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
"This book has done me so much good." —Pope Francis From one the leading intellects in the church today—one whom Pope Francis has described as a "superb theologian"—comes perhaps his most important book yet. Available for the first time in English, Cardinal Kasper looks to capture the essence of the gospel message. Compassionate, bold, and brilliant, Cardinal Kasper has written a book which will be studied for generations.

The Heart of Christianity

The Heart of Christianity PDF Author: Marcus J. Borg
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0061746592
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
World-renowned Jesus scholar Marcus J. Borg shows how we can live passionately as Christians in today's world by practicing the vital elements of Christian faith. For the millions of people who have turned away from many traditional beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Bible, but still long for a relevant, nourishing faith, Borg shows why the Christian life can remain a transforming relationship with God. Emphasizing the critical role of daily practice in living the Christian life, he explores how prayer, worship, Sabbath, pilgrimage, and more can be experienced as authentically life-giving practices. Borg reclaims terms and ideas once thought to be the sole province of evangelicals and fundamentalists: he shows that terms such as "born again" have real meaning for all Christians; that the "Kingdom of God" is not a bulwark against secularism but is a means of transforming society into a world that values justice and love; and that the Christian life is essentially about opening one's heart to God and to others.

Christianity and Creation

Christianity and Creation PDF Author: James P. Mackey
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826419071
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
James Mackey has written a bold one-volume systematic theology in eight chapters on creation, fall, salvation, God, creed, code, cult and church constitution.