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opposite), the social structures
and institutions that people
create to serve them can instead
come to control and even enslave
them. The process of rational self-
discovery can lead to “alienation”—
a concept of estrangement that went
on to have a profound influence on
the social sciences.
Ludwig Feuerbach, a German
philosopher and former student
of Hegel’s, used the concept of
alienation to criticize religion.
Feuerbach argues that people
endow God with human qualities
and then worship him for thoseA
ccording to the German
philosopher Georg Hegel,
liberty in a full sense
consists of participation in certain
ethical institutions. More infamously,
he also said that only in the state
“does man have rational existence.”
He believed that Christianity was
the perfect (“consummate”) religion
for the emerging age of modernity
because it reflected its spirit or
geist—faith in reason and truth.
However, because of the process of
contradiction known as “dialectic”
(in which, by its own nature,
something can contain its
qualities, so they unconsciously
worship themselves. This prevents
them from fully realizing their own
potential; the divine is no more
than a projection of alienated
human consciousness. Karl Marx’s
collaborator, Friedrich Engels,
acknowledged that Feuerbach’s
The Essence of Christianity had
a profoundly liberating effect on
them both in the 1840s.Man makes religion
Karl Marx’s father had converted
from Judaism to Christianity
merely to ensure his job security,KARL MARX
Although it provides solace,
religion is the sigh of the
oppressed creature, the heart
of a heartless world.Economic hardship
prevents most people
from achieving comfort
and true happiness in
this world.Religion distorts
this reality and encourages
people to work hard, passively
accept their lot, and
endure suffering.Religion provides
false hopes and says
that true happiness can
only be attained in the
heavenly afterlife.IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
ReligionKEY DATES
1807 German philosopher
Georg Hegel’s work The
Phenomenology of Spirit
introduces the concept
of alienation.1841 The Essence of
Christianity by German
philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach
draws on Hegel’s idea of
alienation and applies it
critically to Christianity.1966 Religion has lost its
authority, according to British
sociologist Bryan Wilson in
Religion in Secular Society.2010 German sociologist
Jürgen Habermas, in An
Awareness of What is Missing:
Faith and Reason in a Post-
Secular Age, muses on why
religion has failed to disappear.