Nietzsche’s Provocative Questions
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche invokes strong, negative reactions among people of faith. His well-known reputation as an atheist, his virulent attacks on religion, and his alleged antisemitism have made him a favorite punching bag for Christians.
Although Nietzsche was not the first person to proclaim “God is dead,” he has been identified with that phrase since it appeared in his 1882 book, The Gay Science. His philosophical works were largely ignored during his lifetime but after his death, Nietzsche’s writings became popular, especially among the National Socialist Party, who interpreted his publications as anti-Semitic. The far-right Nazis twisted Nietzsche’s Will to Power and his concept of Ubermensch in a way that the author never intended. In fact, throughout his books, Nietzsche stressed over and over again his disgust with antisemitism. Unfortunately, even today there are those who associate Nietzsche with anti-Jewish sentiment.
I was first introduced to Nietzsche while in college but read him more closely during graduate studies. His philosophy, while often brilliant, struck me as nihilistic and hopeless, and I soon turned the page and moved on to Christian thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin. Still, Nietzsche’s writings continued to haunt and disturb me throughout my years in ministry. As a Christian, I could not embrace his atheistic philosophy but his radical insights about Jesus, faith and the Christian life raised many provocative questions that the church has struggled to adequately address—questions that I so often want to ignore because they make me uncomfortable.
While we people of faith are prone to castigate Nietzsche and reject anything he writes as evil, I’ve discovered in the last few years, as I’ve reread many of his works, that people of faith need to listen to him more closely. His criticisms of the Christian faith, and Christians in particular, are painfully brutal but remarkably prescient. Writing in the 19th century, he predicted with uncanny accuracy that people’s interest in church would gradually diminish and there would be an increased appetite for secularity and materialism.
By all accounts, Nietzsche was humble, kind, and friendly to those he met on the street. He lived an almost ascetic lifestyle. He did not drink alcohol, indulge his passions or engage in frivolous amusements. He remained single all of his life. His health was poor, with debilitating digestive issues, severe headaches, and failing eyesight. Although doctors insisted he rest his eyes and not read more than two or three hours a day, Nietzsche read and studied for ten, twelve, fourteen hours at a time, taking few breaks from his work. His indefatigable labor led to a mental breakdown and stroke at the age of forty-four. He lived as an invalid for the remaining 12 years of his life. A rumor started in the 1940s, forty years after his death, that he suffered from syphilis is baseless.
What can people of faith learn from this iconoclastic philosopher who rejected God and vehemently opposed the Christian faith? There are some who would say we can learn nothing from such a man, and to even spend energy reading him is a waste of time, maybe even sacrilegious.
I certainly understand why some people might feel that way. Nietzsche takes a sledge hammer to some of the most cherished church dogmas and questions whether they truly represent the teachings of Jesus. He forces believers to defend how the radical way of life Jesus modeled has been transformed by the church into a convenient and comfortable lifestyle. We may not like what Nietzsche has to say, but we desperately need to hear him say it. Someone has wisely said, “Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.” Nietzsche is someone with whom we want to closely engage, for he has anticipated the modern materialistic world and Christianity’s submission to it.
While Nietzsche does not believe in the divinity of Jesus, he does respect Jesus as an important figure in history. In Nietzsche’s view, Jesus’ lasting legacy was his exemplary life. He came to model how humanity was to live. Jesus lived a sacrificial life from beginning to end, according to Nietzsche, and calls his followers to do the same. Jesus lived what he preached. He did not resist his accusers, his tormentors, his judges, or even the cross.
Nietzsche rejected Jesus’ sacrificial lifestyle, believing that Jesus was simply a naïve young man but honors Jesus for standing by his convictions. Nietzsche wonders, though, why the church has, by in large, rejected the lifestyle that Jesus embraced and invited his disciples to follow.
Nietzsche accuses the church of turning its back on the Jesus way of life. Nietzsche sees the church as professing faith in Jesus but doing nothing about it except going to church and taking communion. He writes: “The Christians have never practiced the actions that Jesus prescribed . . . the Christian acts like all the world.” Nietzsche ridicules the church for professing faith in Jesus but not following his sacrificial way of life. For Nietzsche, there was only one Christian, and the world crucified him. Nietzsche wrote, only “a life such as Jesus lived who died on the cross, is Christian.”
Immediately, when Christians read Nietzsche’s criticisms, they want to throw in words like faith, grace, and forgiveness to counter Nietzsche’s accusations that the church has failed to live up to the teachings of Jesus. “No one is perfect,” Christians profusely profess, “we all sin and fail to live up to God’s standards. Grace and forgiveness rescue us from condemnation.”
True enough, but according to Scripture, God’s grace is not a permission slip to follow the Jesus Way only when we feel like it. Jesus calls us to daily pick up our cross and follow him (Mk. 8:34), in other words, to live a consistent life of self-sacrifice. The Apostle John adds, “He that says he knows him, should walk even as he walked” (1 Jn. 2:6). And James reminds us, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26). Nietzsche does not attack Christians because they are not perfect; he understands the weaknesses of humanity. He criticizes Christians for so easily yielding to the world’s way—why does the church, Nietzsche questions, act and live just like everyone else?
I don’t share Nietzsche’s cynicism about the church nor his broad scathing rebuke of Christian behavior. The church and individual Christians have made significant contributions—establishing hospitals, schools, charities, feeding and housing the destitute, standing up for the weak and powerless, and so much more—but these positive contributions have often been offset by attitudes and behaviors contrary to the Jesus Way. Some of the 16th century reformers, for instance, rejoiced that believers would gather in heaven and celebrate the torment of non-believers burning in the fires of hell. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the superiority of the white race was preached from many white pulpits. In recent years, I have personally heard Christians condemn undocumented migrants fleeing into our country for safety. I have winced in embarrassment when I hear people of faith criticize our government for sending aid to people who live in abject poverty.
How different these attitudes and behaviors are from the crucified Jesus who forgave his executioners from the cross, and preached a message of love and reconciliation, and calls his followers to care for the least of these.
Nietzsche sees how thin our commitment is to the Jesus Way—and, I might add, so does the rest of the world!
