Ludwig Feuerbach is best known as the author of a sensational criticism of Christianity in the mid-nineteenth century. Although some scholars regard this criticism of Christianity as important in its own right, most view it pertinent because of its anticipation of the views of Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud. Harvey's long-awaited book argues that this is an inadequate interpretation of Feuerbach's significance. By exploring works of Feuerbach which have been virtually ignored, he convincingly demonstrates their contemporary relevance.

Click here to learn more about this book

Feuerbach study collection (Archive)

Site includes:

• Engels on Feuerbach
• Feuerbach on religion
• The Essence of Christianity

Feuerbach:  Biography (Archive)

German philosopher who had an important influence on mid-Victorian religious thought. In Das Wesen des Christentums (The Essence of Christianity), translated into English in 1854 by the novelist George Eliot, Feuerbach argues that religion is a form of self-deception. Man, who is anxious about his situation in the world - suffering a sort of existential angst - takes all his best qualities (humanity, love, compassion) and unconsciously projects them onto a being outside himself, indeed outside all natural constraints, whom he calls God. But God's attributes are actually man's. In the act of self-delusion man diminishes himself. He becomes alienated, estranged from his own true nature.. "To enrich God," says Feuerbach, "man must become poor; that God may be all, man must be nothing."

Find Feuerbach Texts: