The Essence of Christianity. Feuerbach Ludwig

the common bond of all beings.

38

Religion speaks by example. Example is the law of religion. What Christ did is law. Christ suffered for others; therefore, we should do likewise. “Quæ necessitas fuit ut sic exinaniret se, sic humiliaret se, sic abbreviaret se Dominus majestatis; nisi ut vos similiter faciatis?” – Bernardus (in Die nat. Domini). “We ought studiously to consider the example of Christ… That would move us and incite us, so that we from our hearts should willingly help and serve other people, even though it might be hard, and we must suffer on account of it.” – Luther (Th. xv. p. 40).

39

“Hærent plerique hoc loco. Ego autem non solum excusandum non puto, sed etiam nusquam magis pietatem ejus majestatemque demiror. Minus enim contulerat mihi, nisi meum suscepisset affectum. Ergo pro me doluit, qui pro se nihil habuit, quod doleret.” – Ambrosius (Exposit. in Lucæ Ev. l. x. c. 22).

40

“Quando enim illi (Deo) appropinquare auderemus in sua impassibilitate manenti?” – Bernardus (Tract. de xii. Grad. Humil. et Superb.).

41

“Deus meus pendet in patibulo et ego voluptati operam dabo?” – (Form. Hon. Vitæ. Among the spurious writings of St. Bernard.) “Memoria crucifixi crucifigat in te carnem tuam.” – Joh. Gerhard (Medit. Sacræ, M. 37).

42

“It is better to suffer evil than to do good.” – Luther (Th. iv. s. 15).

43

“Pati voluit, ut compati disceret, miser fieri, ut misereri disceret.” – Bernhard (de Grad.). “Miserere nostri, quoniam carnis imbecillitatem, tu ipse eam passus, expertus es.” – Clemens Alex. Pædag. l. i. c. 8.

44

“Dei essentia est extra omnes creaturas, sicut ab æterno fuit Deus in se ipso; ab omnibus ergo creaturis amorem tuum abstrahas.” – John Gerhard (Medit. Sacræ, M. 31). “If thou wouldst have the Creator, thou must do without the creature. The less of the creature, the more of God. Therefore, abjure all creatures, with all their consolations.” – J. Tauler (Postilla. Hamburg, 1621, p. 312). “If a man cannot say in his heart with truth: God and I are alone in the world – there is nothing else, – he has no peace in himself.” – G. Arnold (Von Verschmähung der Welt. Wahre Abbild der Ersten Christen, L. 4, c. 2, § 7).

45

“Exigit ergo Deus timeri ut Dominus, honorari ut pater, ut sponsus amari. Quid in his præstat, quid eminet? – Amor.” Bernardus (Sup. Cant. Serm. 83).

46

Just as the feminine spirit of Catholicism – in distinction from Protestantism, whose principle is the masculine God, the masculine spirit – is the Mother of God.

47

“Dum Patris et Filii proprietates communionemque delectabilem intueor, nihil delectabilius in illis invenio, quam mutuum amoris affectum.” – Anselmus (in Rixner’s Gesch. d. Phil. II. B. Anh. p. 18).

48

“Natus est de Patre semper et matre semel; de Patre sine sexu, de matre sine usu. Apud patrem quippe defuit concipientis uterus; apud matrem defuit seminantis amplexus.” – Augustinus (Serm. ad Pop. p. 372, c. 1, ed. Bened. Antw. 1701).

49

In Jewish mysticism, God, according to one school, is a masculine, the Holy Spirit a feminine principle, out of whose intermixture arose the Son, and with him the world. Gfrörer, Jahrb. d. H. i. Abth. pp. 332–334. The Herrnhuters also called the Holy Spirit the mother of the Saviour.

7 “For it could not have been difficult or impossible to God to bring his Son into the world without a mother; but it was his will to use the woman for that end.” – Luther (Th. ii. p. 348). ↑

50

In the Concordienbuch, Erklär. Art. 8, and in the Apol. of the Augsburg Confession, Mary is nevertheless still called the “Blessed Virgin, who was truly the Mother of God, and yet remained a virgin,” – “worthy of all honour.”

51

“Sit monachus quasi Melchisedec sine patre, sine matre, sine genealogia: neque patrem sibi vocet super terram. Imo sic existimet, quasi ipse sit solus et Deus. (Specul. Monach. Pseudo-Bernard.) Melchisedec … refertur ad exemplum, ut tanquam sine patre et sine matre sacerdos esse debeat.” – Ambrosius.

52

“Negas ergo Deum, si non omnia filio, quæ Dei sunt, deferentur.” – Ambrosius de Fide ad Gratianum, l. iii. c. 7. On the same ground the Latin Church adhered so tenaciously to the dogma that the Holy Spirit proceeded not from the Father alone, as the Greek Church maintained, but from the Son also. See on this subject J. G. Walchii, Hist. Contr. Gr. et Lat. de Proc. Spir. S. Jenæ, 1751.

53

This is expressed very significantly in the Incarnation. God renounces, denies his majesty, power, and affinity, in order to become a man; i. e., man denies the God who is not himself a man, and only affirms the God who affirms man. Exinanivit, says St. Bernard, majestate et potentia, non bonitate et misericordia. That which cannot be renounced, cannot be denied, is thus the Divine goodness and mercy, i. e., the self-affirmation of the human heart.

54

It is obvious that the Image of God has also another signification, namely, that the personal, visible man is God himself. But here the image is considered simply as an image.

55

Let the reader only consider, for example, the Transfiguration, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Christ.

56

“Sacram imaginem Domini nostri Jesu Christi et omnium Salvatoris æquo honore cum libro sanctorum evangeliorum adorari decernimus… Dignum est enim ut … propter honorem qui ad principia refertur, etiam derivative imagines honorentur et adorentur.” – Gener. Const. Conc. viii. Art. 10, Can. 3.

57

“Tanta certe vis nomini Jesu inest contra dæmones, ut nonnunquam etiam a malis nominatum sit efficax.” – Origenes adv. Celsum, l. i; see also l. iii.

58

“God reveals himself to us, as the Speaker, who has, in himself, an eternal uncreated Word, whereby he created the world and all things, with slight labour, namely, with speech, so that to God it is not more difficult to create than it is to us to name.” – Luther, Th. i. p. 302.

59

“Hylarius … Si quis innascibilem et sine initio dicat filium, quasi duo sine principio et duo innascibilia, et duo innata dicens, duos faciat Deos, anathema sit. Caput autem quod est principium Christi, Deus… Filium innascibilem confiteri impiissimum est.” – Petrus Lomb. Sent. l. i. dist. 31, c. 4.