Critique's Quarrel with Church and State by Edgar Bauer

Critique's Quarrel with Church and State
by Edgar Bauer (1820-1886),
translated and with an introduction by Eric v.d. Luft
from Der Streit der Kritik mit Kirche und Staat
(second edition, 1844), with the German text,
modernized for spelling and syntax,
and a Foreword by Widukind De Ridder

Edgar was the younger brother of Bruno Bauer, both active
among the Young Hegelians in the 1840s. Edgar wrote
irreverent political philosophy in a brash, accessible,
sarcastic, no-holds-barred style, sometimes anarchist,
social democratic, democratic socialist, communist, or
libertarian, but thoroughly revolutionary.

From the translator's introduction:
"While much of this book is Edgar's attempt to
defend his older brother Bruno, the founder and
primary exponent of Young Hegelian critique, against
attacks from conservative Christian authorities and
apologists, the greater part - and the main message -
is straightforward political philosophy, written in a
brash, accessible, sarcastic, no-holds-barred style -
not at all ponderous, as we might have expected from
a German author. His overarching theme is that faith
is justified if and only if it is faith in reason and in
the power of the human intellect, but never if it is
faith which defies or denies reason, logic, history,
nature, the human spirit, or especially science.
Unreflective conformity with the faith of others
or with the dictates of the ecclesiastical or
sociopolitical order is even worse."