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The German philosopher L. Feuerbach (1804–1872), a representative of the abstract philosophical interpretation of religion, greatly influenced the formation of a philosophical approach to the study of religion. In his works "The Essence of Christianity" and "Lectures on the Essence of Religion", he tried to reveal the natural, earthly roots of religion. Religion, according to Feuerbach, is a human product, a consequence and a form of man's alienation of his essence. Feuerbach associated the emergence of religion with the helplessness and ignorance of primitive man, his complete dependence on the elemental forces of nature. Primitive man deified everything on which he depended, that seemed to him alien and mysterious. In this way, according to Feuerbach, all natural religions arose. In the concept of "natural religions" Feuerbach included all the various beliefs of primitive people, as well as the so-called "pagan religions" (polytheism). A deeper human basis, according to Feuerbach, are the so-called "spiritual religions" based on the recognition of one God (monotheism). In spiritual religions, Feuerbach believed, man deifies his essence as the essence of the human race in general.
Feuerbach strove to reveal the emotional, psychological and epistemological mechanisms of the emergence of religion. He attached decisive importance in the formation of religious images to the power of imagination, fantasy, which he called the "theoretical" cause of religion. Human consciousness, according to Feuerbach, in the process of cognition has the ability to "deviate" from reality. In this case, some features of reality are reduced, while others are inflated, exaggerated. Under the influence of the mechanisms of imagination, hypostasis occurs (from the Greek hypostasis - essence, substance) - the transformation of individual properties of the parties, relations into independent beings, endowing them with an objective existence. Feuerbach believed that mental images are endowed with an independent existence and become an object of faith. Religious belief from these positions is a belief in the objective existence of fantasized properties, connections, beings. In spiritual religions, to which Christianity belongs, according to Feuerbach, such most general properties of the human race as reason, immortality, power, and good were subjected to hypostatization. This is the source of such characteristics of the Christian God as "omniscient", "all-good", etc.
Younger contemporaries and students of Feuerbach K. Marx (1818-1883) and F. Engels (1820-1995), due to the peculiarities of their creative inclinations and practical activities, formulated the basic principles of the socio-philosophical analysis of religion. According to Marx (whose views can be considered not only within the framework of the sociology of religion, but also within the philosophy of religion), Feuerbach's reduction of religion to its earthly basis is of great cognitive importance. Man, according to Marx and Engels, is a social being. The essence of man is the totality of all social relations. Therefore, a truly philosophical explanation of religion can be given only on the basis of an analysis of social relations.
