Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-314) and index.

"Projection" in The essence of Christianity -- The interpretative strategy informing The essence of Christianity -- The criticism of religion in The essence of Christianity -- Feuerbach's intellectual development -- The new bipolar model of religion -- The new interpretative strategy -- Feuerbach and contemporary projection theories -- Feuerbach, anthropomorphism, and the need for religious illusion.

Ludwig Feuerbach is traditionally regarded as a significant but transitional figure in the development of nineteenth-century German thought. Readings of Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity tend to focus on those features which made it seem liberating to the Young Hegelians: namely, its criticism of reification as abstraction, and its interpretation of religion as alienation. In this book, Van Harvey claims that this is a limited and inadequate view of Feuerbach's work, especially of his critique of religion. The author argues that Feuerbach's philosophical development led him to a much more complex and interesting theory of religion which he expounded in works which have been virtually ignored hitherto. By exploring these works, Harvey gives them a significant contemporary re-statement, and brings Feuerbach into conversation with a number of modern theorists of religion.