Philosopher · Modern
Ludwig Feuerbach
1804–1872 · Anthropological materialism; projection theory of religion
Began in theology at Heidelberg, lost his career with the anonymous Thoughts on Death and Immortality (1830), and became the father of modern atheistic humanism; Marx's Theses on Feuerbach and de Lubac's Drama of Atheist Humanism both begin with him.
In The Essence of Christianity (1841) Feuerbach argued that theology is anthropology: God is the human species-essence (reason, will, love) projected outward and worshiped as another being, so that religion is man's self-alienation and its secret is the infinite worth of humanity. The Principles of the Philosophy of the Future (1843) turned from Hegel to the senses and to the I–Thou relation of man with man as the ground of truth, and the Lectures on the Essence of Religion (1851) traced religion to the feeling of dependence on nature. He denied personal immortality, held that “man is what he eats,” and in old age joined the Social Democratic party.
Why he matters: His projection theory is the engine of Marx, Freud and much modern unbelief, and the Church has answered it from Pius IX to Fides et Ratio; de Lubac's Drama of Atheist Humanism treats him as the first act, Karl Barth wrote the classic introduction, and Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity meets his claim that God is a wish. His turn to the I–Thou and to love prepared Buber and the Catholic personalists even as it denied God.
Where to be careful
His atheism, materialism and reduction of God to the human species contradict Dei Filius chs. 1–2 and CCC 2123–2126; his denial of the soul's immortality contradicts Lateran V; his reading of the sacraments as natural signs (water as water, bread as bread) is Zwingli without Christ. What remains is his insistence that love, reason and the body are the essence of the human, which the Incarnation affirms more than his projection ever could.
Reading
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The Essence of ChristianityLudwig Feuerbach · The projection theory entire, in George Eliot's translation; read Barth's introduction too.
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Principles of the Philosophy of the FutureLudwig Feuerbach · The turn to the senses and to the I–Thou.
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The Drama of Atheist HumanismHenri de Lubac, SJ · Feuerbach as the source of the humanism that devours man.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.