Never translated before, 'Thoughts on Death and Immortality' was the first published work of Ludwig Feuerbach. The scandal created by portrayal of Christianity as an egoistic and inhumane religion cost the young Hegelian his job and, to some extent, his career. Joining philosophical argument to epigram, lyric, and satire, the work has three central arguments: first, a straightforward denial of the Christian belief in personal immortality; second, a plea for recognition of the inexhaustible quality of the only life we have; (...) and third, a derisive assault on the posturings and hypocrisies of the professional theologians of nineteenth-century Germany. (shrink)

The author begins by stating that one of the principal reasons for writing this book was that “the more I came to ‘know’ God in Hegelian categories, the less I had any sense of the presence of God. In other words, the God of speculative philosophy did not seem to bear any relation to the God of the Bible, who is portrayed as speaking to men and personally guiding their lives.” I, too, doubt whether the God of the Bible has (...) been speaking to most Hegelian scholars and philosophers lately, whether they are men or women. The first and last chapters are devoted to a theological discussion of the contemporary “dilemma,” explained as a split between “secular” and “biblical” methods of doing historical research and of understanding the meaning of history, a split that has been fostered by such diverse figures as Ernst Troeltsch and Karl Barth, because they refused to question the presuppositions of “secular” methods of appropriating history. The solution proposed is a return to “biblical” categories for understanding “biblical history” and “secular history,” and for a “biblical” foundation for religious language; none of these terms are explained. (shrink)

The author begins by stating that one of the principal reasons for writing this book was that “the more I came to ‘know’ God in Hegelian categories, the less I had any sense of the presence of God. In other words, the God of speculative philosophy did not seem to bear any relation to the God of the Bible, who is portrayed as speaking to men and personally guiding their lives.” I, too, doubt whether the God of the Bible has (...) been speaking to most Hegelian scholars and philosophers lately, whether they are men or women. The first and last chapters are devoted to a theological discussion of the contemporary “dilemma,” explained as a split between “secular” and “biblical” methods of doing historical research and of understanding the meaning of history, a split that has been fostered by such diverse figures as Ernst Troeltsch and Karl Barth, because they refused to question the presuppositions of “secular” methods of appropriating history. The solution proposed is a return to “biblical” categories for understanding “biblical history” and “secular history,” and for a “biblical” foundation for religious language; none of these terms are explained. (shrink)