Man created God in his own image
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Man created God in his own image" is an anthropotheic dictum.
It is generally ascribed to Ludwig Feuerbach who in his "Lectures on the Essence of Religion" (1851) states:
- "Denn nicht Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde, wie es in der Bibel heißt, sondern der Mensch schuf, wie ich im »Wesen des Christentums« zeigte, Gott nach seinem Bilde."
It is often shortened to "Der Mensch schuf Gott nach seinem Bilde."
In English it reads "God did not, as the Bible says, make man in His image; on the contrary man, as I have shown in The Essence of Christianity, made God in his image. (tr. Ralph Manheim), shortened to "Man made God in His image."
In The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1900) Freud describes how he found himself reversing the well-known text of Genesis, "God created man in his own image," into "Man created God in his."
Freud's original German reads "'Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde' und dessen veränderte Fassung 'der Mensch schuf Gott nach dem seinigen'."
See also
- Anthropology of religion
- Image of God
- God created man in his own image
- Ludwig Feuerbach
- Theomorphism
- Anthropotheism
- Psychological projection