Van Harvey's claim that Feuerbach's Essence of Religion[1] presents an important advance over The Essence of Christianity[2] rings true to me in several ways. To understand why, it is necessary to first briefly outline Feuerbach's argument in Christianity.
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Barth and Kierkegaard may each in his own way be seen as voices of resistance against the trends inherent in the liberal theology of their respective milieus. In Fear and Trembling[1], we see Kierkegaard's protest against the totalizing philosophy of the Hegelians. Some 75 years later Barth's Epistle to the Romans[2] would cite Kierkegaard's "leap of faith" in Barth's own objection to the comfortable way in which God had been brought to the level of an object within the realm of human understanding. Both authors reject what might be referred to as "mediation," or rational explanations of encounters between human
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