Based on the literary estate of Feuerbach, discovered in 1956, this book provides new perspectives on the developmental history of Feuerbach‹s works. It focuses on the historical reconstruction of ‹Wesen der Religion‹ (The Essence of Religion) (1846), the preliminary versions of which are presented here for the first time. The negative critique this work received from Marx and others, which has influenced and prejudiced research on Feuerbach, is questioned here. This book shows a Feuerbach who criticized the unscrupulous technological manipulation of nature, colonialist and racist ideologies, the faith in science shown by positivist and evolutionist theories but who on the other hand upgraded so-called primitive thinking as well as the strictly scientific approach which is aware of its limitations.