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A Problem in Ludwig Feuerbach's Theory of Religious Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Lawrence C. Foard
Lawrence C. Foard
Affiliation:
Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, Westfield State College, Massachusetts
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Extract

The late Karl Barth once wrote that no one can hope to overcome Ludwig Feuerbach ‘…with whining or with angry criticism of his views of religion.’ This is plainly correct, for Feuerbach's argument that religious language is always anthropological is an argument of great attractiveness—and, apparently, of great explanatory utility to psychologists, historians, and philosophers. Barth's solution to the problem raised by Feuerbach is less satisfactory. It just will not do for Christian believers simply to cleanse Christian theology of anthropological foundations by admitting ‘…that even in our relation to God,… we can lay claim to his truth, his certainty, his salvation as grace and only as grace’. Nor will it do for Christian believers, secure in the promise of divine succour, to ‘… laugh… at Feuerbach’ for his naive view of human possibilities. Even though a cleansing of theology may be helpful to the Church, it will have little (more likely, no) effect upon the widespread popular and scholarly acceptance of Feuerbach's conclusions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1973 , pp. 457 - 461
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

page 457 note 1 Karl Barth, ‘An Introductory Essay’ (from Die Theologie und die Kirche [Zollikon-Zürich: Evangelischer Verlag A.G., 1928]), trans. James Luther Adams, reprinted in Ludwig, Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity, trans. George, Eliot, Torchbook edition (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers 1957,) p. xxviii.Google Scholar

page 457 note 2 Barth, ‘An Introductory Essay’, ibid., p. xxix.

page 457 note 3 Barth, ‘An Introductory Essay’, ibid., p. xxviii.

page 458 note 1 Feuerbach, Essence, p. 2.

page 458 note 2 ibid., p. 2.

page 458 note 3 ibid., p. 4.

page 458 note 4 ibid., p. 5.

page 458 note 5 ibid., p. 12.

page 458 note 6 ibid., p. 12.

page 458 note 7 ibid., p. 16.

page 458 note 8 ibid., p. 14.

page 459 note 1 , Feuerbach, Essence, pp. 12–32.Google Scholar

page 460 note 1 , Feuerbach, Essence, chaps. 3–6.Google Scholar

page 460 note 2 Karl, Marx, ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Tucker, Robert C. (New York, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1972), pp. 107–109Google Scholar, thesis 4.

page 460 note 3 Marx, ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, ibid., thesis 6

page 460 note 4 Marx, ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, ibid., theses 6, 8.

page 460 note 5 Cf., e.g., Friedrich, Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, trans. (from the second edition) and ed. MacKintosh, H. R. and Stewart, J. S., Torchbook edition, (New York, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963), 2 vols.: vol. I, pp. 62–68Google Scholar; vol. II, pp. 377–424; Immanuel, Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, trans. Greene, Theodore M. and Hudson, Hoyt H., Torchbook edition (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1960), pp. 59–60.Google Scholar

page 461 note 1 Feuerbach, , Essence, p. 45.Google Scholar

page 461 note 2 ibid., p. 59.

page 461 note 3 ibid., p. 63.