Nietzsche and the Christian Faith

To understand the writings of Nietzsche one would have to take his education and background into account. In 1844, Friedrich Nietzsche was born into a deeply religious family. On both his mother’s side and father’s side of his family there was a long line of Protestant pastors. His father was also a Protestant pastor. When Nietzsche was five years old his father, Ludwig Nietzsche, died leaving Nietzsche to live with his mother, his younger sister, two of his aunts and his paternal grandmother. Because of these women’s pious beliefs, “his family life was quiet, cultivated, and rigidly orthodox” (Canning, 189). He was greatly influenced by his mother and aunt Rosalie where he “encountered two different attitudes towards faith and religion; his mother was devout and possessed a spontaneous and emotional religiosity, while his aunt Rosalie’s religiosity was more rationalistically inclined” (Santaniello, 138). Living with people of such strong faith, it was no wonder that Nietzsche’s faith blossomed and continued when he started school. While attending religions school he took many courses on religion, philosophy, and philology. As a result of his intense education on these subjects, especially religion, Nietzsche has been able to formulate his own opinion and write his famous papers like those in The Will to Power.

The first school Nietzsche attended was a local school in the town Naumburg. Nietzsche and his family (mother, sister, aunts and grandmother) moved to Naumburg after his father’s death. Nietzsche attended this local school until he was fourteen and was seen as a “bright but rather prim child who obeyed authority eagerly and to the letter” (Canning, 189). One example of his compliance with authority is the story of him walking home from school one day in the pouring rain. When his mother told him to hurry up, he replied that “regulation forbade the boys to jump or run when returning from school” (Canning, 189).

During Nietzsche’s early schooling he possessed an original and imaginative mind and was called “the little pastor.” This was not “only because of his bearing and because of his behavior but also because he could recite long passages from the Bible by heart” (Santaniello, 138). He was expected to grow up and become a pastor like his father and grandfathers and at this point it looked like he was well on his way to fulfilling his family’s legacy. Nietzsche wrote numerous religious poems about his Christian faith and also composed music at the age of twelve.

When Nietzsche was fourteen, he began his studies at a school named Schulpforta to prepare him for his university studies. Schulpforta was more deeply religious than Nietzsche’s previous school. He attended this school from the ages of fourteen to nineteen. Between the last two to three years at Schulopforta Nietzsche’s faith in Christianity became to deteriorate. In 1861, Nietzsche’s tutor Buddensieg died unexpectedly. Buddensieg was a pastor and someone whom Nietzsche had developed a warm relationship with. After Buddensieg’s death, Nietzsche for the first time became “psychologically and emotionally free to question his Christian faith” (Santaniello, 140). Nietzsche stopped writing religious poems and began reading books which questioned the Christian faith. He felt the “existence of God, immortality, the authority of the Bible, inspiration are now incapable of being proved” (Bluhm, 880). He realized and admitted that Christianity is solely based on assumptions. At this time he did not fully abandon the Christian religion because it was so woven in to everything he did and was.

In each school Nietzsche attended, religion continued to be his best subject. His “grades varied between ‘good’ and ‘relatively good’ ”(Santaniello, 138). “When this remarkable youth, who was easily the outstanding member of his graduating class (from Schulpforta), arrived in Bonn (University of Bonn) in the fall of 1864, he enrolled as a student of both theology and philology” (Bluhm, 881). It is possible that pressures from family influenced Nietzsche to continue theological studies. Nietzsche also studied philosophy at Bonn. By taking so many so many courses on religion, philology, and philosophy Nietzsche was able to become almost an expert on those subjects.

Nietzsche’s close friend Paul Deussen, whom he attended Schulpforta and Bonn with, admits that the two of them were not attracted to the University of Bonn because of the professors of theology but because of the classical scholars Ritschl and Jahn. “The classics had thus been Nietzsche’s and Deussen’s main interest from the beginning”(Bluhm, 883). As Nietzsche’s education continued at Bonn, it became apparent that the interests he had in theology declined and his interests in philology increased. The study of philology, during Nietzsche’s time, was a “disciple which was centered around the interpretation of classical and biblical texts” (Wicks). Deussen admits candidly that they neglected to attend regularly the lectures in theology because they found them decidedly too boring. He also mentions the fact that they bought the new edition of Strauss’ Leben Jesu (1864) and found themselves agreeing in the main with the author’s critical views (Bluhm, 883). Within this view, Nietzsche remarked that the surrender of Christ involves the surrender of God. This is one of the first statements where Nietzsche proclaims that God is dead. Other important influences during college were Schopenhauer and Ludwig Feuerbach. Schopenhauer was a pessimistic German philosopher who’s “atheistic and turbulent vision of the world, in conjunction with his highest praise of music as an art form, captured Nietzsche’s imagination” (Wicks). Feuerbach was an outspoken atheist who

“argued that God is the projection oh human characteristics onto something external, outside of the self. In particular, human beings dissociate themselves from their own to think, to take action, and to love, attributing these powers to God instead of to themselves. Fear is the motivation for this projection. By projecting and exaggerating human abilities onto a supernatural personage, believes can image themselves as protected by a power that far exceeds that of any threatening person or natural force ” (Solomon and Higgins, 86).

During Nietzsche’s studies of theology he closely studied The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach. In 1865, Nietzsche discontinued his studies of theology. A this point he completely broke from Christianity and the family expectation and tradition of following in the path of his ancestor in becoming a pastor. From here on he continued his studies in philology and philosophy and even became a professor of philology at Basel University in Switzerland at the age of twenty-four.

Nietzsche’s issues with Christianity include, but is not restricted to, the idea of God, the invention of Christianity, seeing others in a negative light, “love of thy neighbor,” Christianity’s repudiation of nature, and natural instincts. Although Nietzsche has never really attacked Christianity with hostility, he attacks the idea of the Christian God most severely.

“ What Nietzsche hates in the idea of God, what he attacks most bitterly in that idea, is the ‘moral God,’ the God of Christianity, the God of the poor and humble, the God of love and forgiveness and sympathy... His attacks against God are directed against those who have created the Christian God, against the ‘slaves,’ against the Jews, against the rabble, whose ideal is the ideal of Christianity, whose character is reflected in the God of their creation” (Chatterton-Hill, 114).

Nietzsche has a problem with the Christian concept of God not with the concept of God in itself. When Nietzsche attacks the idea of God, it is in reality the idea of the moral law which he attacks. He attacks that ideal, which he represents to be the ideal of the slaves, of the toiler, of the masses, of the rabble, of those who are impotent to attain power and yet lust after power. Unable to subdue or subjugate the strong race of the masters by physical force and in open combat, they adopt all sorts of tortuous means, cunning, ruse, patience, hypocrisy, in order to vanquish these strong races and to conquer power for themselves. The most gigantic piece of ‘tartufferie,’of cunning and ruse, ever adopted for the subjugation and castration of the strong man, is the Christian religion (Chatterton-Hill, 118).

Christianity creates divisions between people which are full of evy, mercy, hypocrisy, and pity. According to Nietzsche, the triumph of the Christian religion is the triumph of the slaves (Chatterton- Hill,119). Christianity creates ideals of slaves, weakness, impotency and ugliness which are turned into an universal law. The ideal of slaves include revenge, hatred, and envy become the ideals of universal good when the slaves triumph. Christianity’s main desire is to bring down the “strong man” and have the ever lustful “slave” receive his power, which creates a new “strong man” and “slave”and the cycle starts all over again.

In order to understand the problem Nietzsche has with the invention of Christianity one has to understand Feuerbach’s view that human beings invented God by depriving themselves of any sense of their own powers. Nietzsche insists that humans are not actively engaging with their problems, but instead treat their life experiences as if their real significance can only be deciphered on a supernatural level. In Nietzsche’s The Antichrist, he writes “in Christianity neither morality nor religion has even a single point of contact with reality. Nothing but imaginary causes, ‘God,’ ‘soul,’ ‘ego,’ ‘spirit,’ ‘free will’ - for that matter ‘unfree will,’ nothing but imaginary effects (‘sin,’ ‘redemption,’ grace,’ ‘punishment, ‘forgiveness of sins’)” (Solomon and Higgins, 88). This kind of outlook is very damaging. It impairs one’s ability to function and flourish by weakening one’s ability to view of the world, to see the real forces in life, and to recognize how to best address life’s issues. Another problem in Christianity is that suffering is interpreted as punishment. Allegedly, God’s revenge for the sins committed by Adam and Eve was when suffering enter the world. “Nietzsche complains in Daybreak the ‘Only in Christendom did everything become punishment, well-deserved punishment: it also makes the suffer’s imagination suffer, so that with every misfortune he feels himself morally reprehensible and cast out” (Solomon and Higgins, 89). Christianity encourages its believers to feel and believe that the mistakes they make will have horrible effects and that if they have committed a serious mistake, they deserve to be eternally damned. The only hope of these believers is that God will be merciful.

Another aspect of Christianity in which Nietzsche criticizes is its encouragement of seeing others in a negative light. Nietzsche states that according to Christianity the only way to improve one’s self-assessment is to look for flaws within others. Realizing the small sins and flaws of others makes one feel less sinful. Discovering these imperfection is the “quest for moral superiority” (Solomon and Higgins, 92). By applying this Christian outlook a popular appetite for scandals and ruined reputations is created which assures all believers that they will always be better than some other unfortunate soul.

Nietzsche does not believe that this drive to find fault in others can be compensated by the Christian’s doctrine of “love of thy neighbor.” “Nietzsche thinks that ‘love of thy neighbor’ is merely a hollow slogan to ‘cover’ one’s indifference to the particular psychologies of real people, encouraging one to treat other with an indiscriminant superficial kindness” (Solomon and Higgins, 92). “Love of thy neighbor” becomes a way to use others to improve the impression of oneself. To feel virtuous in the end, there is no caring of whether gestures help or harm others and they just become acts of kindness that are played out only for the benefit of the actor.

Nietzsche targets Christianity’s repudiation of nature, particularly human natural, as inconceivable. The Christian interpretations of the natural appetites of the human body are referred to as dangerous temptations. The body is viewed as a major source of sin that has to be repressed, even if it involves physical harm. Fasting is one slow method for diminishing one’s health and reducing the force of the drives or urges. There are more aggressive ways for silencing the unwanted drives that Christian moralizer are willing to suggest. One suggestion is found in Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols. “The most famous formula for this is to be found in the New Testament, in the Sermon on the Mount, where, incidentally, things are by no means looked at from a height. There it is said, for example, with particular reference to sexuality: ‘If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out.’ Fortunately, no Christian acts in accordance with this precept” (Solomon and Higgins, 90). This statement not only shows that Christian consequences can be cruel but that everything in the Bible is followed.

Nietzsche believes that along with encouraging the Christian believer to despise the body’s demands but it should also view the natural instincts of the human body, the psychological makeup which seeks self-assertion and self-enhancement, as evil or deadly. This hatred of our physical and psychological natural is evident in the list of the most deadly sins- pride, envy, greed, gluttony, sloth, lust, and anger. These sins are all expressions of natural instinct in their ugliest form. Nietzsche says instead of providing ways for developing self-control in expressing natural instincts, Christianity merely urges the destruction of the instincts. The problem with this is that one cannot destroy one’s instincts without destroying oneself. Nietzsche anticipates that most people will not be able to erase their instincts and passions, which is a natural result but is a failure in the Christian view.

“The upshot of Nietzsche’s analysis is that Christianity encourages self-hatred. If we vilify the essential urges and instincts that underline our physical and psychic health, we cannot regard ourselves with satisfaction; instead, we feel we should be at war with fundamental components of our being and we consider ourselves failure for having human constitutions. The war between the flesh and the spirit, of which Luther makes so much, strikes Nietzsche as an indication of the degree to which Christianity promotes inner conflict and makes unfulfillable demands. The person who seriously accepts the Christian vision of the human being is bound, in Nietzsche’s view, to develop a degraded vision of him- or herself” (Solomon and Higgins, 91).

Nietzsche does not believe that our psyches will accept the self-denigrating vision without a struggle because he believes that the “will to power,”the impulse to enhance life, is essential to the human makeup.

Among many, The Will to Power is one of Nietzsche’s writings that contain his anti-Christian beliefs. The “will to power” is applied to forces or drives and not to people. One thinks of power as containing a highest end but Nietzsche says that there really are not ends, let alone a highest one. This being said the Christian God cannot exist because He is said to have the ultimate power when there is only drives. “A drive finds itself already pursing given ends through a given project... Nietzsche thinks of drives as belonging to largely stable types, not able to redirect themselves onto radically different routes toward power” ( Richardson, 23).

Another concept within The Will to Power is that “not mankind, but overman is the goal” (1001 Nietzsche, 273).The overman is also know as the übermensch or the superman. An overman is someone who gives order to chaos, declares his will, makes great demands of himself, and lives life to the fullest. This person would be both a master and a slave ruling out the division that Christianity creates between people.

The Will to Power is just one of Nietzsche works that the Nazis misinterpreted for their own benefit. The Nazis presumed that the “will to power” meant that they have the will to have power and to be the superior race. “In the age of suffrage universal, i.e., when everyone may sit in judgment on everyone and everything, I feel impelled to reestablish order of ranks” (854 Nietzsche, 272). After World War I, Europe, especially Germany, was in a period of suffrage and the Nazis took this quote of Nietzsche’s to mean that they should reestablish ranks and make themselves the highest rank. According to Nietzsche the only way to establish ranks was by quanta of power (855 Nietzsche, 272). This power is what the Nazis sought after and received.

“A declaration of war on the masses by higher men is needed! Everywhere the mediocre are combining in order to make themselves master! Everything that makes soft and effeminate, that serves the ends of the ‘people’ or the ‘feminine,’ works in favor of suffrage universal, i.e., the dominion of inferior men. But we should take reprisal and bring this whole affair to light and to the bar of judgement” (861 Nietzsche, 272).

Nazis believed that they were the “higher men.” They could used this quote to say that Nietzsche was for the suppression of the Jewish “race” and he would have not opposed to the concentration camps and what happened in them. On the contrary, Nietzsche would have opposed everything that had to do with the Nazis, also known as the National Socialism Party. Nietzsche states in The Will to Power, “I am opposed to socialism, because it dreams quite naively of ‘the good, true, and beautiful’ and of ‘equal rights” (753 Nietzsche, 272). Nietzsche also always saw a link between Germany and nationalism and socialism. He felt that nationalism was a sickness that must be overcome. In The Gay Science, Nietzsche describes the link between nationalism and Germany while he also expresses his desire to rise above such petty interests:

“We are not nearly ‘German’ enough [to be nationalists], in the sense in which the word ‘German’ is constantly being used nowadays, to advocate nationalism and race hatred and to be able to take pleasure in the national scabies of the heart and blood poisoning that now leads the nations of Europe to delimit and barricade themselves against each other as if it were a matter of quarantine. For that we are too openminded, too malicious, too spoiled, also too well informed, too ‘traveled” (Taylor).

The Nazis perceived Nietzsche views completely wrong. Nietzsche was for the rise of the individual not of the government and despised every form of government.

Along with the expression of Nietzsche’s anti-Christian views, modernistic aspects are revealed in his writings. Nietzsche lived during a time where the Enlightenment, part of the western rational tradition where the belief was that everything could be explained through reasoning, was being criticized and rejected. This was called Modernism. Nietzsche, along with other philosophers like Freud and Dostoyevsky, emphasized that subconscious drives, impulses, and instincts lay at the core of human nature. This means that feelings determine human actions more than reasoning does. At this time the modern westerners admired the theoretical man and not the man of instinct and action. But Nietzsche said that in these modern times doubts have arisen about science’s claim to the attainment of certainty. His explanation of this can be found in The Birth of Tragedy.

“They (the man of genius) have authoritatively rejected science’s claim to universal validity and to the attainment of universal goals and exploded for the first time the belief that man may plumb the universe by means of the law of causation. The extraordinary courage and wisdom of Kant and Schopenhauer have won the most difficult victory, that over the optimistic foundations of logic, which form the underpinnings of our culture. Whereas the current optimism had treated the universe as knowable, in the presumption of eternal truths, and space, time, and causality as absolute and universally valid laws, Kant showed how these supposed laws serve only to raise appearances...” (Nietzsche, 271).

Nietzsche’s religious upbringing and religious schooling enabled Nietzsche to become a famous philosopher. If he did not experience such pious views and had not formulated his own opinions of the Christian religion he would have not been able to come up with his great ideas and theories like the übermensch and write The Will to Power, The Birth of Tragedy, or any other piece. Fortunate for us he did grow up in a deeply religious home and attend religious courses throughout his student years. It is also fortunate for us that Nietzsche could rise above the expectations of his family and not become a pastor.

Work Cited

Bluhm, Heinz. Nietzsche’s Religious Development as a Student at the University of Bonn. PMLA, Vol. 52, No. 3. (Sep., 1937), pp. 880-8891. Stable URL: http://links.jsto.org/sici?sici=00308129%28193709%2952%3A3%3C880%3ANRDAAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L

Chatterton-Hill, Georges. The Philosophy Of Nietzsche: An Exposition and an Appreciation. New York: Haskell House Publishers LTD, 1971.

Canning, John ed. 100 Great Modern Lives: Makers of the World Today From Faraday to Kennedy. New York: Hawthorn Books Inc., 1965.

Nietzsche, Friedrich(author). Perry, Marvin and Joseph R. Peden and Theodore H.Von Laue(eds.) Sources of the Western Tradition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

Richardson, John. Nietzsche’s System. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1996.

Santaniello, Weaver(editor), Brobjer, Thomas(author of chapter), and Stuhr, John(foreword). Nietzsche and the Gods. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Solomon, Robert, and Kathleen Higgins. What Nietzsche Really Said. New York: Schocken Books, 2000.

Stokes, Philip. Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers. New York: Enchanted Lion Book, 2003.

Taylor, Alan. “Nietzsche the Nazi”, Mus(e)ings... on Nietzsche: Wandering and Reflections. 1996. The University of Texas at Arlington. http://www.uta.edu/english/apt/fritz/anietzschenazi.html

Wicks, Robert, "Friedrich Nietzsche", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2004/entries/nietzsche/>.