The Antichrist (book)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Antichrist (Der Antichrist) is a German philosophical book by Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1895.

The German title can be translated into English as both "The Anti-christ" and "The Anti-christian"; given the content of the book it is likely to imply both.

Nietzsche presented a Christ whose own inner life consisted of "blessedness in peace, in gentleness, in the inability for enmity." (§ 29). There is much criticism by Nietzsche of the organized institution of Christianity and its class of priests. Christ's evangelism consisted of the good news that the kingdom of God is within you. "What are the 'glad tidings'? True life, eternal life is found - it is not promised, it is here, it is within you: as life lived in love...." (§29) " 'Sin', every kind of distancing relationship between God and man, is abolished - precisely this is the 'glad tidings'.(§33) "The 'glad tidings' are precisely that there are no more opposites...." (§ 32)

Nietzsche did not demur of Jesus, saying he was the "only one true Christian". For Nietzsche, the institution or eponym, Christian, was both ironic and hypocritical. However, it was not the Romans this time, it was the Christians who had killed him and his idea. "And time has been reckoned from that dies nefastus, the beginning day of this disaster, from Christianity's first day! Why not rather from its last day--from today?-- Revaluation of all values!"

The reference to the Antichrist is not intended to refer to the biblical Antichrist but is rather an attack on the "slave morality" and apathy of Western Christianity. Nietzsche's basic claim is that Christianity (as he saw it in the West) is a poisoner of western culture and perversion of the words of and practice of Jesus (who is described, for the most part, favorably). In this light, the provocative title is mainly expressing Nietzsche's animus toward Christianity, as such. In this book, Nietzsche is very critical of institutionalized religion and its priest class, from which he himself was descended. The majority of the book is a systematic, logical and detailed attack upon the interpretations of Christ's words by St. Paul and those who followed him. It is, however, worth noting that Nietzsche, although respectful of Jesus' methods and practice, does indeed explicitly represent in some ways the antithesis to Jesus' teachings of passivity and meekness. Therefore the title "Antichrist" also refers, to some extent, to the philosophical opposite of Jesus.