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Nietzsche's Attack on Christian Theism |
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| "If the Christian dogmas of
a revengeful God, universal sinfulness, election by divine grace and the
danger of eternal damnation were true, it would be a sign of
weak-mindedness and lack of character not to become a priest,
apostle or hermit and, in fear and trembling, to work solely on one's own
salvation; it would be senseless to lose sight of ones eternal advantage
for the sake of temporal comfort. If we may assume that these things are
at any rate believed true, then the everyday Christian cuts a
miserable figure; he is a man who really cannot count to three, and who
precisely on account of his spiritual imbecility does not deserve to be
punished so harshly as Christianity promises to punish him." --Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human "Really unreflective people are now
inwardly without Christianity, and the more moderate and reflective people
of the intellectual middle class now possess only an adapted, that is to
say marvelously simplified Christianity. A god who in his love
arranges everything in a manner that in the end will be best for us; a god
who gives to us and takes from us our virtue and our happiness, so that as
a whole all is meet and fit and there is no reason for us to take life
sadly, let alone exclaim against it; in short, resignation and modest
demands elevated to godhead - that is the best and most vital thing that
still remains of Christianity. But one should notice that Christianity has
thus crossed over into a gentle moralism: it is not so much 'God,
freedom and immortality' that have remained, as benevolence and decency of
disposition, and the belief that in the whole universe too benevolence and
decency of disposition prevail: it is the euthanasia of
Christianity." The two quotes above by Nietzsche suggest certain kinds of failed Christianity: one that lives a life utterly out of line with its beliefs; the other a Christianity bereft of its defining features. Keeping in mind Alisdair MacIntyre's critique of the failed practice of a modernity without a true telos guiding its actions, how might part of Nietzsche's attack on Christian theism result from a practice guilty of bad faith, of even ethical and ideological incoherence? Discussion Questions
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"Are you a slave?
If so, you cannot be a friend.
Are you a tyrant? If
so, you cannot have friends. In woman, a slave and a tyrant have all too
long been concealed. For that reason, woman is not yet capable of
friendship: she knows only love. In a woman's love is injustice and
blindness towards all that she does not love. And in the enlightened love
of a woman, too, there is still the unexpected attack and lightning and
night, along with the light. Woman
is not yet capable of friendship: women are still cats and birds. Or, at
best, cows. Woman is not yet capable of friendship. But tell me, you men,
which of you is yet capable of friendship?" Louise von Salome, a former philosophy and theology student, as well as an intellectual revolutionary was loved by both Paul Ree, Jewish philosopher and devotee of the new psychology, and by Nietzsche. The three lived together for a time, with Salome rejecting Nietzsche's marriage proposals twice. She found Ree the more interesting of the two and reduced the older Nietzsche to helpless melancholy and frustration. This famous picture features Salome holding a whip with both Ree and Nietzsche held by ropes. An ironic photograph taken in a moment of self-aware bemusement by the trio. What does it reveal about the limits of Nietzsche's own "life-affirming" alternative? |