Man on His Own: Essays in the Philosophy of Religion

by Ernst Bloch

Man on His Own, Essays in the Philosophy of Religion Man on His Own, Essays in the Philosophy of Religion

Genres: Philosophy

Hardcover

First published June 1, 1970

About the author

Ernst Bloch was one of the great philosophers and political intellectuals of twentieth-century Germany. Among his works to have appeared in English are The Spirit of Utopia (Stanford University Press, 2000), Literary Essays (Stanford University Press, 1998), The Utopian Function of Art and Literature: Selected Essays (1987), and The Principle of Hope (1986).

Reviews

[David Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernst Bloch was a Marxist philosopher who, along with Georg Lukacs, was a forerunner of the variety of Western Marxism commonly associated with such figures as Theodor Adornso, Lucien Fèbvre, Herbert Marcuse, etc. This anthology of essays comes from various sources and it's main focus is the analysis of the forward-looking utopian element in religion, especially in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Bloch asserts that the content of Judaism and of Christianity provides the heart for an otherwise heartless world. By this he does not simply mean that the religion of the Bible provides consolation of the kind Marx had in mind, the people’s opiate, though such consolation is to be found in the Bible and is the element emphasized by institutional organized religion. Bloch argues that religion also represents in its purest form the belief that human justice and human hope are present within and become increasingly constitutive of the process of history. And in so far as there is a decisive criticism of religion, of polytheism, of magical rites, of a debilitating other-worldliness, of the religious particularism of a nation or a culture, then this decisive critique can be found within Biblical religion itself. Interesting but difficult, worth the effort; most highly recommended for those interested in liberation theology.