VLASTIMIL ZÁTKA
HUSITSKÁ TEOLOGICKÁ FAKULTA UNIVERZITY KARLOVY
HUSSITE THEOLOGICAL FACULTY OF CHARLES UNIVERSITY
CHRISTIAN HUMANISM IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF L. FEUERBACH
Abstract: This study examines Feuerbach’s anthropological conception of the Christian religion
and explores its deepest philosophical and theological problems. In contrast to Hegel, the young
Feuerbach conceived of the Christian religion as a philosophical anthropology and rejected Hegel’s
metaphysical account of it. According to Feuerbach, the essence of the Christian religion is Christology,
which in his view is a special kind of religious anthropology without metaphysical foundations. The
study shows that in Feuerbach‘s conception of the Christian religion a new concept of the personal
relationship between man and God was constructed. Instead of the traditional metaphysical
description of the Christian belief in a transcendent God, a new theory of religious belief in Man
and Humanity took its place. The study also emphasizes that Feuerbach’s new anthropological and
anti-metaphysical conception of religion was not only theoretical but also ethical, and that the main
aim of his philosophy was to construct a deeper philosophical account of modern secular humanism
in relation to Christian religion and ethics. The final part of the study highlights his importance for
contemporary postmodern and post-metaphysical philosophical thought and his legacy for modern
Czech humanist philosophy.
Keywords: anthropological theory of Christian religion; critique of Hegel’s metaphysical conception
of religion; religion as universal humanism; philosophical anthropology as Christology, new postmetaphysical
theory of religious ethics; rejection of Nietzsche’s nihilism and scientific positivism
THEOLOGICAL REVIEW, Vol. 94, 2023, No. 3 – 4, Number of Article 1, p. 184 – 222.
DOI: 10.14712/12117617.94.3-4.1