SOURCE: Preuss, Peter. “Feuerbach on Man and God.” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 11, no. 2 (1972): 204-23.

In the following essay, Preuss argues that in The Essence of Christianity Feuerbach attempted and failed to surpass Hegelian philosophy.

I

When Feuerbach published his The Essence of Christianity in 1841 it excited a “clamour” in the educated circles of the day, a “clamour” which apparently did not surprise Feuerbach nor cause him to back down from the bold thesis of the work. Rather it caused him “once more, in all calmness” to subject his work “to the severest scrutiny, both historical and philosophical” and in the full conviction of the truth of his thesis to publish a second edition two years later.¹

What was this bold thesis and in what circles did it create this clamour? The thesis was that “religion is the dream of the human mind” (F xxxix) or, put more boldly...