Political Feuerbach: an ontology of community through the prism of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity

Abstract

In 1842, Ludwig Feuerbach raised the question concerning the necessity of a reform (Notwendigkeit einer Veränderung) of philosophy, and how it should take place. These considerations led to his famous statement on the necessity of a new, human-centered way to be religious, where politics would assume a foundational role. In order to clarify the meaning of this position, we will take a step back towards Das Wesen des Christentums (1841), to analyze his reading of the Christian dogma of the Trinity. We will seek to identify the elements that allow us to better understand the sense and the scope of a reform of philosophy that claims to be “political”, rooted on man’s communal nature, as the young Feuerbach from Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit stated: “Sein ist Gemeinschaft”: being is community.