Faust Complex: Young Hegelians and the Theology of Atheism
Body of ideas brought forth in the early to mid 19th Century Germany by the group of radicals summed up under the moniker "young (or:'left') Hegelians" enacted an enormous influence on both 20th Century and our current time, in the guise of totalitarian political ideas and practices. What is somewhat neglected by interprets is the fact that Young Hegelians first and foremost were a movement inspired and even led by radical theologians; whereas contemporary public opinion on Marxism, anarchism and even Nazism tends to comprehend these movements to be as far removed from theology and metaphysics, i.e. as a political reaction to historical reality, they are originally anything but. They, in effect, stem from an attempt to liberate humanity from religion in general and Christianity in particular, based on certain peculiar ideas that are religious in themselves.
