Feuerbach’s Exploration For The Future Of Religion

Feuerbach is the famous German materialist philosopher in19th-century, who is known for his criticism of traditional religion, especially Christianity. Feuerbach analyzes the root cause of the religion in depth and obtains the four elements of the religion-a sense of dependence, desire, imagination and egoism. These four together constitute the root cause of the religion. According to these, Feuerbach exposes the essence of the religion and points out that the essence of the religion is actually a reflection of human nature and meanwhile a dissimilation of human nature. Religion reflects the relationship between man and nature and the relationship among men from the needs and aspirations of men. The process of men reflected in the religion itself is actually the process of self-consciousness. Men make the human nature objectified in the religion and this dissimilated objective becomes a subject opposed to men and dominates men in turn. Instead, men become the subordinate objects. When the essence of the religion is revealed, Feuerbach explores the future of the religion and his prescription for the future of the religion is the loving religion, only loving religion can eliminate dissimilation and reset the nature of men. Loving religion is an atheistic religion, advocating to transforming God’s love for men and man’s love for God into love among men. Feuerbach strongly opposes theology, but he does not oppose religion itself and he even believes that religion is an essential existence for man. Man is the origin of religion, the center of religion and the end of religion. Furthermore, this thesis also analyzes the practical significance and limitations of the loving religion theory of Feuerbach.