The Essence Of Religion

This book, translated for the first time into English, presents the major statement of the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach. Here, in his most systematic work, Feuerbach's thought on religion and on the philosophy of nature achieves its full maturity. Central to the thought of Feuerbach is the concept that man not God is the creator, that divinities are representations of man's innermost feelings and ideas. Philosophy should turn from theology and speculative rationalism to sound factual anthropology. "My aim in these Lectures," writes Feuerbach, "is to transform friends of God into friends of man, believers into thinkers, worshippers into workers, candidates for the other world into students of this world, Christians, who on their own confession are half-animal and half-angel, into men--whole men."

This book provides a comprehensive selection of readings that relate to and explore the definition of religion. The texts come from a wide range of approaches, unified both by the questions they address and their broadly social scientific perspective. The disciplines covered include anthropology, phenomenology, psychology and sociology. The editors have also included some key texts relating to the feminist approach to and critique of religion. The initial section of the book includes some of the foundational texts, such as materials by Marx, Freud, and Durkheim. The remaining sections look at more recent discussions of the issues from the different disciplinary perspectives. Each reading is introduced by a biographical sketch of the author. The book also includes introductory discussions to each section that both raise the key issues developed in a particular discipline and address the disciplinary approaches from a more critical stance. Theories of Religion: A Reader is an invaluable critical resource, accessible to a broad audience as well as students of theology and religious studies.Seth D. Kunin, dean of Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Durham, is author of Religion: the Modern Theories, coeditor of A Companion to Religious Studies and Theology, and editor of Themes and Issues in Judaism. Jonathan Miles-Watson is lecturer in anthropology at the University of Wales Swansea.

German philosopher and anthropologist LUDWIG ANDREAS VON FEUERBACH (1804-1872) was a powerful influence on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Feuerbach's atheism is reflected in their socialist philosophies, and that humanized theology-essentially, a rational approach to understanding concepts of God and Christianity-gets its greatest exploration here. In The Essence of Christianity-this is the classic 1853 translation of the 1841 German original-Feuerbach discusses the "true or anthropological" root of religion, exploring how everything from the nature of God to the mysteries of mysticism and prayer can be viewed through such a prism. He goes on to examine the "false" essences of religion, including contradictions in ideas of the existence of a deity, and then how God and religion are merely expressions of human emotion. This is essential background reading for understanding everything from Marx's Communist Manifesto to modern apolitical philosophies of atheism.

Waardenburg’s magisterial essay traces the rise and development of the academic study of religion from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, outlining the establishment of the discipline, its connections with other fields, religion as a subject of research, and perspectives on a phenomenological study of religion. Futhermore a second part comprises an anthology of texts from 41 scholars whose work was programmatic in the evolution of the academic study of religion. Each chapter presents a particular approach, theory, and method relevant to the study of religion. The pieces selected for this volume were taken from the discipline of religious studies as well as from related fields, such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology, to name a few.

This is a collection of Bowne’s most important sermons, some of which appeared in other collections. It covers a remarkably large number of aspects of religion and faith, and summarises well the thought and achievements of this great preacher. The topics covered range from the role of Jesus Christ in religion and in our own lives, to the activities of the church, to Christianity as a doctrine, to the ways in which we can enjoy a healthy and successful life. The book will appeal to many, from the scholar to the relative newcomer to religion. It is lucid and flows easily, yet not without giving the reader much food for thought, and a new angle on many things he has probably thought and enquired about. In the words of the author’s wife, “ ‘if,’ to use the author’s own words, ‘the great end of religion is a developed soul, a soul with a deep sense of God, a soul in which faith, courage, and resolution are at their highest,’ then the writer of these sermons had in this life entered into the fullest realisation of all he taught to others.” And most readers will probably feel this after reading a few words of the first sermon.

Of Religion: BRIAN C. WILSON.

This volume is a comprehensive collection of critical essays on The Taming of the Shrew, and includes extensive discussions of the play's various printed versions and its theatrical productions. Aspinall has included only those essays that offer the most influential and controversial arguments surrounding the play. The issues discussed include gender, authority, female autonomy and unruliness, courtship and marriage, language and speech, and performance and theatricality.

The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion is presented in three comprehensive parts. Written by a range of outstanding academics, the volume explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look in future. Explores the current status of the sociology of religion, and how it might look at the beginning of the next millennium. Traces the boundaries between sociology and other closely related disciplines, such as theology and social anthropology. Edited by one of the best known and most widely respected sociologists of religion Accessibly presented in three comprehensive parts.

"Originally published in 1845, this digest of thirty lectures by one of Germany's most influential humanist philosophers extends the critique expounded in The Essence of Christianity (1841) to religion as a whole." The main thrust of Feuerbach's analysis of religion is aptly summed up in the original subtitle to this work: "God the Image of Man. Man's Dependence upon Nature the Last and Only Source of Religion." Feuerbach reviews key aspects of religious belief and in each case explains them as imaginative elaborations of the primal awe and sense of dependence that humans experience in the face of nature's power and mystery. Rather than man being created in the image of God, the situation is quite the reverse: "All theology is anthropology," he says, and "the being whom man sets over against himself as a separate supernatural existence is his own being."

The description for this book, Critique of Religion and Philosophy, will be forthcoming.

Thirty classic and contemporary readings - from such writers as Kant, Hume, Schleiermacher, and Otto, to Ninian Smart, Mircea Eliade, Karen McCarthy-Brown, and Wendy Doniger.

short description: A further rich and profound contribution to the debate on the position of the Christian faith in the modern world opened up Dr. Kraemer's previous book, The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World.

These lectures represent the final, and in some ways the decisive, element of Hegel's entire philosophical system. This volume contains Hegel's philosophical interpretation of the history of religions, specifically of primitive religion, the religion of ancient China, Buddhism, Hinduism, Persian and Egyptian religions, and Jewish, Greek and Roman religion.

""The Meditations of Fr. E.S.Q.S.: Vol I."" is a collection of various meditations of mine, taken from various (free and widely accessible) sources, bound together, and printed for your convenience. It is a luxury product, not a necessity. Buying a copy of this book of mine is, in a sense, like making a donation to my continued efforts as a (esoteric) writer - save that you get something in return for your donation. Meditations included are as follows: The Essence of Religion In the Service of Our Lord A Short Meditation on the Glamour of Glory Conscious Expressions and Telepathy On Teaching Esoterics PART I On The Uselessness of Clairvoyance Speculation on Esoterics The Danger of Lower Siddhis or Psychic Powers The Meaning of ""Maya"" Plato and the Unexamined Life The Meaning and Purpose of Life Writing as Meditation

The "Essence of Religion" is a compilation of two short meditations written over a period of ten years - "The Essence of Religion" and "In the Service of Our Lord" - concerning the essence, meaning, and purpose of religion. In it, the author ventures to argue the case - by analyzing scripture and religious thought, with particular emphasis on the Doctrine of Christos - that the essence of religion is love culminating in the brotherhood of man and that the purpose of religion is service or goodwill. It is written primarily from a Christian viewpoint; however, it is generally applicable to all religions.

Wilfred Cantwell Smith, maintained in this vastly important work that Westerners have misperceived religious life by making "religion" into one thing. He shows the inadequacy of "religion" to capture the living, endlessly variable ways and traditions in which religious faith presents itself in the world.

This collection of essays brings together scholars who use frameworks provided by Marx and Critical Theory in analyzing religion. Its goal is to establish a critical theory of religion within sociology of religion as an alternative to rational choice.

Religious Discourse in Modern Japan explores the transportation of the Western concept of “religion” in in the modern era; the emergence of discourse on Shinto, philosophy, and Buddhism; and the evolution of the academic discipline of religious studies in Japan.