The Essence of Christianity

Ludwig Feuerbach

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2018
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783748129028
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Religion is the disuniting of man from himself; he sets God before him as the antithesis of himself. God is not what man is, man is not what God is. God is the infinite, man the finite being; God is perfect, man imperfect; God eternal, man temporal; God almighty, man weak; God holy, man sinful. God and man are extremes: God is the absolutely positive, the sum of all realities; man the absolutely negative, comprehending all negations. But in religion man contemplates his own latent nature. Hence it must be shown that this antithesis, this differencing of God and man, with which religion begins, is a differencing of man with his own nature. The inherent necessity of this proof is at once apparent from this, that if the divine nature, which is the object of religion, were really different from the nature of man, a division, a disunion could not take place. If God is really a different being from myself, why should his perfection trouble me? Disunion exists only between beings who are at variance, but who ought to be one, who can be one, and who consequently in nature, in truth, are one.

Table of contents

• Cover
• The Essence of Christianity
• Table of contents
• PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.1
• INTRODUCTION.
• THE TRUE OR ANTHROPOLOGICAL ESSENCE OF RELIGION.
• GOD AS A BEING OF THE UNDERSTANDING.
• GOD AS A MORAL BEING, OR LAW.
• THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION; OR, GOD AS LOVE, AS A BEING OF THE HEART.
• THE MYSTERY OF THE SUFFERING GOD.
• THE MYSTERY OF THE TRINITY AND THE MOTHER OF GOD.
• THE MYSTERY OF THE LOGOS AND DIVINE IMAGE.
• THE MYSTERY OF THE COSMOGONICAL PRINCIPLE IN GOD.
• THE MYSTERY OF MYSTICISM, OR OF NATURE IN GOD.
• THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE, AND CREATION OUT OF NOTHING.
• THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CREATION IN JUDAISM.
• THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FEELING, OR THE MYSTERY OF PRAYER.
• THE MYSTERY OF FAITH—THE MYSTERY OF MIRACLE.
• THE MYSTERY OF THE RESURRECTION AND OF THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION.
• THE MYSTERY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHRIST, OR THE PERSONAL GOD.
• THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND HEATHENISM.
• THE CHRISTIAN SIGNIFICANCE OF VOLUNTARY CELIBACY AND MONACHISM.
• THE CHRISTIAN HEAVEN, OR PERSONAL IMMORTALITY.
• THE FALSE OR THEOLOGICAL ESSENCE OF RELIGION.
• THE ESSENTIAL STANDPOINT OF RELIGION.
• THE CONTRADICTION IN THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
• THE CONTRADICTION IN THE REVELATION OF GOD.
• THE CONTRADICTION IN THE NATURE OF GOD IN GENERAL.
• THE CONTRADICTION IN THE SPECULATIVE DOCTRINE OF GOD.
• THE CONTRADICTION IN THE TRINITY.
• THE CONTRADICTION IN THE SACRAMENTS.
• THE CONTRADICTION OF FAITH AND LOVE.
• CONCLUDING APPLICATION.
• EXPLANATIONS—REMARKS—ILLUSTRATIVE CITATIONS.