the Buddhistic ideal, there essentially an emancipa
tion from good and evil: very subtle suggestion Beyond all morality thought out its teaching, and this Beyond supposed be
compatible with perfection,--the condition being,
that even good actions are only needed pro tem,
than the Jewish fanaticism
could be more contrary tension, fire, and unrest
?
tion from good and evil: very subtle suggestion Beyond all morality thought out its teaching, and this Beyond supposed be
compatible with perfection,--the condition being,
that even good actions are only needed pro tem,
than the Jewish fanaticism
could be more contrary tension, fire, and unrest
?
Nietzsche - Works - v14 - Will to Power - a
)?
How do such men
? ? ? I2O THE WILL TO POWER.
in their god; (2) that there is no other access, no direct access to god, save through them. The
second condition alone gives rise to the concept "heterodoxy"; the first to the concept "dis
believers" (that is to say, he who believes in another god).
I4 I.
A Criticism of the Holy Lie. --That a lie is allowed in pursuit of holy ends is a principle which belongs to the theory of all priestcraft, and the object of this inquiry is to discover to
what extent it belongs to its practice.
But philosophers, too, whenever they intend
taking over the leadership of mankind, with the
ulterior motives of priests in their minds, have never failed to arrogate to themselves the right to lie: Plato above all. But the most elaborate of lies is the double lie, developed by the typically
Arian philosophers of the Vedanta: two systems, contradicting each other in all their main points, but interchangeable, complementary, and mutually
expletory, when educational ends were in question. The lie of the one has to create a condition in
which the truth of the other can alone become
intelligible.
How far does the holy priests and philo sophers go? --The question here what hypo
theses do they advance regard education, and what are the dogmas they are compelled
invent order do justice these hypotheses? First they must have power, authority, and
absolute credibility on their side.
? . . .
? ? : in
to
in to
lie of
to is, to
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION. I2 I
Secondly: they must have the direction of the whole of Nature, so that everything affecting the
individual seems to be determined by their law. Thirdly: their domain of power must be very
extensive, in order that its control may escape
the notice of those they subject: they must know
the penal code of the life beyond--of the life
"after death,"--and, of course, the means where
by the road to blessedness may be discovered.
They have to put the notion of a natural course of things out of sight, but as they are intelligent
and thoughtful people, they are able to promise a
host of effects, which they naturally say are con
ditioned by prayer or by the strict observance of their law. They can, moreover, prescribe a large
number of things which are exceedingly reasonable --only they must not point to experience of
empiricism as the source of this wisdom, but to revelation or to the fruits of the "most severe
exercises of penance. "
The holy lie, therefore, applies principally to the
purpose of an action (the natural purpose, reason,
is made to vanish: a moral purpose, the observ ance of some law, a service to God, seems to be
the purpose): to the consequence of an action (the natural consequence is interpreted as something
supernatural, and, in order to be on surer ground, other incontrollable and supernatural consequences are foretold).
In this way the concepts good and evil are
created, and seem quite divorced from the natural concepts: "useful," "harmful," "life-promoting,"
? "life-reducing,"--indeed,
inasmuch as another life
? ? ? I22 THE WILL TO POWER.
is imagined, the former concepts may even be antagonistic to Nature's concepts of good and evil.
In this way, the proverbial concept "conscience"
is created: an inner voice, which, though it makes
itself heard in regard to every action, does not
measure the worth of that action according to
results, but according its intention the con
Punishes and rewards, who recognises and carefully
observes the law-book the priests, and who
particular about sending them into the world his mouthpieces and plenipotentiaries; (2) After Life, which, alone, the great penal machine
man, understood the knowledge that good and evil are permanent values--that God himself
formity
this intention the "law. "
The holy therefore invented: (1) god who
? supposed
be active--to this end the immor tality the soul was invented; (3) conscience
speaks through
conformity with priestly precepts; (4) Morality
the denial all natural processes, the subjection phenomena moral order, the inter
pretation all phenomena
moral order things (that punishment and reward),
the effects
say, the concept
happiness
whenever its counsels are
the only power and only creator transformations; (5) Truth given, revealed, and identical with the teaching
the priests: the condition all salvation and
ment supposed due morality? --The
unhinging reason, the reduction all motives fear and hope (punishment and reward); dependence
this and the next world.
short: what the price paid for the improve
? ? of in
of of
toin
of
as as
a
to
of as
of a
as in
in
anas is
its
be
of
to to
In
as of to is all
of
lie
to to
as is
to as
of
of all
is of
to a
it,
as
of
a or
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I23
upon the tutelage of priests, and upon a formulary
exactitude which is supposed to express a divine will; the implantation of a "conscience" which establishes a false science in the place of experience and experiment: as though all one had to do or
had not to do were predetermined--a kind of castration of the seeking and striving spirit;--in short : the worst mutilation of man that can be imagined, and it is pretended -that "the good man" is the result.
Practically speaking, all reason, the whole heri tage of intelligence, subtlety, and caution, the first condition of the priestly canon, is arbitrarily re
? duced, when it is too late, to a simple mechanical
process: conformity with the law becomes a pur
pose in itself, it is the highest purpose; Life no
longer contains any problems;--the whole conception
of the world is polluted by the notion of punish
aversion to Life, and even a criticism and a con
temning of Truth transformed the mind, into priestly prevarication; the striving after truth,
into the study of the Scriptures, into the way
ment;--Life itself, owing
to the fact that the priest's life is upheld as the non plus ultra of
perfection, is transformed into a denial and pol lution of life;--the concept "God" represents an
theologian.
42.
become
whole book founded upon the holy lie. Was the well-being humanity that inspired the
whole this system? Was this kind man,
criticism of the Law-Book of Manu. --The
? ? of
it
A
of
is
a
it.
of
I
is
to
in
? I24
THE WILL TO POWER.
who believes in the interested nature of every action, interested or not interested in the success
of this system ? The desire to improve mankind
--whence comes the inspiration to this feeling? Whence is the concept improvement taken P
We find a class of men, the sacerdotal class, who
consider themselves the standard pattern, the highest example and most perfect expression of
the type man. The notion of "improving" man kind, to this class of men, means to make man
kind like themselves. They believe in their own superiority, they will be superior in practice: the
cause of the holy lie is The Will to Power. . . . Establishment of the dominion: to this end,
ideas which place a non plus ultra of power with the priesthood are made to prevail. Power ac quired by lying was the result of the recognition
? already possessed physically, in a military form. . . . Lying as a supplement to power--this is a new concept of
"truth. "
It is a mistake to presuppose unconscious and innocent development in this quarter--a sort of
of the fact that it was not
self-deception.
Fanatics are not the discoverers
of such exhaustive systems of oppression. . . . Cold-blooded reflection must have been at work
here;
showed when he worked out his "State"--"One
the same sort of reflection which Plato
must desire the means when one desires the end. " Concerning this political maxim, all legislators
have always been quite clear.
We possess the classical model, and it is speci
fically Arian: we can therefore hold the most
? ? ? the Egyptians -
I 44.
CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I25
gifted and most reflective type of man responsible for the most systematic lie that has ever been told. . . . Everywhere almost the lie was copied, and thus Arian influence corrupted the world. . . .
I43.
Much is said to-day about the Semitic spirit of the Wew Testament: but the thing referred to is merely priestcraft,-and in the purest example
of an Arian law-book, in Manu, this kind of "Semitic spirit"--that is to say, Sacerdotalism, is
worse than anywhere else.
The development of the Jewish hierarchy is not
original: they learnt the scheme in Babylon--it
is Arian. When, later on, the same thing became dominant in Europe, under the preponderance
of Germanic blood, this was in conformity to the spirit of the ruling race: a striking case of atavism. The Germanic middle ages aimed at a revival of the Arian order of castes.
Mohammedanism in its turn learned from Christianity the use of a "Beyond" as an instru
-
ment of punishment.
The scheme of a permanent community, with
priests at its head--this oldest product of Asia's great culture in the domain of organisation--
naturally provoked reflection and imitation in every way. --Plato is an example of this, but above all,
? Moralities and religions are the principal means by which one can modify men into whatever one
? ? ? I 26 THE WILL TO POWER.
likes; provided one is possessed of an overflow
of creative power, and can cause one's will to pre vail over long periods of time.
I 45.
If one wish to see an affirmative Arian religion which is the product of a ruling class, one should read the law-book of Manu. (The deification of the feeling of power in the Brahmin: it is in teresting to note that it originated in the warrior caste, and was later transferred to the priests. )
If one wish to see an affirmative religion of the Semitic order, which is the product of the ruling class, one should read the Koran or the earlier
portions of the Old Testament. (Mohammedan ism, as a religion for men, has profound contempt
for the sentimentality and prevarication of Christi anity, . . . which, according to Mohammedans,
is a woman's religion. )
If one wish to see a negative religion of the
Semitic order, which is the product of the op Pressed class, one should read the New Testament (which, according to Indian and Arian points
of view, is a religion for the Chandala).
If one wish to see a negative Arian religion, which is the product of the ruling classes, one
should study Buddhism.
It is quite in the nature of things that we have
no Arian religion which is the product of the
? oppressed classes;
contradiction: a race of nasters is either mount or else it goes to the dogs.
for that would have been a para
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I46.
127
Religion, per has nothing do with
morality; yet both offshoots the Jewish religion are essentially moral religions--which prescribe the
rules living, and procure obedience their principles by means rewards and punishment.
47.
Paganism -Christianity. --Paganism
that which says yea all that natural, innocence
being natural, "naturalness. " Christianity
that which says no all that natural,
certain lack dignity being natural hostility to Nature.
"Innocent":--Petronius innocent, for in stance. Beside this happy man Christian
? absolutely devoid
the Christian status condition, though
innocence. But since even ultimately only natural
must not be regarded such,
the term "Christian" soon begins mean the counterfeiting the psychological interpretation.
I48.
The Christian priest from the root mortal enemy sensuality: one cannot imagine greater
contrast his attitude than the guileless, slightly awed, and solemn attitude, which the religious rites of the most honourable women Athens
maintained the presence the symbol sex.
In all non-ascetic religions the procreative act the secret per se: sort symbol perfection
? ? to of in
of
of
of
a it to
is
ofis is
I
of
of
is
is
of to in
se, of
a it
of to ;is to
inaa a
of as itis to
is
is is a is
in
? I28 THE WILL TO POWER.
and of the designs of the future: re-birth, im. mortality.
I 49.
greatest fetter, the most telling spur, and the strongest pinion,
Our belief in ourselves is the
Christianity ought to have elevated the innocence of man to the position of an article of belief-- men would then have become gods: in those days believing was still possible.
I 5 O.
The egregious history: were the corruption Paganism that opened the road Christianity. As matter fact, was the enfeeblement and moralisation of the man of
--> antiquity. The new interpretation natural functions, which made them appear like vices, had already gone before
I5
Religions are ultimately wrecked by the belief
? morality.
God becomes untenable,--hence "Atheism,"--as
The idea the Christian moral
though there could no other god.
Culture likewise wrecked by the belief
morality. For when the necessary and only possible conditions growth are revealed,
nobody will any longer countenance (Buddh ism).
? ? it
of it
as if it
of its
be ! alie of
is
of
in
to
in
of
I.
of
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I 52.
I29
The physiology of Nihilistic religions. --All in
all, the Nihilistic religions are systematised histories of sickness described in religious and moral ter
minology.
*
In pagan cultures it is around the interpretation
of the great annual cycles that the religious cult turns; in Christianity it is around a cycle of
paralytic phenomena.
I 53.
This Nihilistic religion gathers together all the
decadent elements and things of like order which it can find in antiquity, viz. :--
(a) The weak and the botched (the refuse of the ancient world, and that of which it rid itself with most violence).
(b) Those who are morally obsessed and anti pagan.
(c) Those who are weary of politics and in different (the blase? Romans), the denationalised,
who know not what they are.
(d) Those who are tired of themselves--who
are happy to be party to a subterranean conspiracy.
I 54.
Buddha versus Christ. --Among the Nihilistic religions, Christianity and Buddhism may always
be sharply distinguished. Buddhism is the ex
pression of a fine evening, perfectly sweet and
mild--it is a sort of gratitude towards all that VOL. I. I
-
? ? ? ? I30
THE WILL TO POWER.
lies hidden, including that which it entirely lacks, viz. , bitterness, disillusionment, and resent ment. Finally it possesses lofty intellectual love; it has got over all the subtlety of philosophical
contradictions, and is even resting after
precisely from that source that intellectual glory and its glow
though
derives sunset
originated the higher classes).
Christianity degenerative movement, con
sisting
elements: race,
all the morbid elements which are
attractive and which gravitate one another. therefore not national religion, not
determined by race:
all kinds decaying and excremental not the expression the downfall from the root, an agglomeration
appeals the disinherited foundation resent
? everywhere;
ment against all that
need
damnation opposed
successful and dominant: symbol which represents the
everything successful and dominant. every form intellectual move
consists
ment, philosophy: takes up the cudgels
for idiots, and utters curse upon intellect. Resentment against those who are gifted, learned,
intellectually independent: all these suspects the element of success and domination.
55.
Buddhism this thought prevails: "All passions, everything which creates emotions and _-leads blood, call action"--to this extent
alone are believers warned against evil. For
mutually
? ? its
all is it it
to
In
is
to in It of
It
it . of of (it it is . a is
of it is,is in to of is
is aaa
to
I a isit
it ofa
of
in a of
it
all
of
of
a it,
to to of asit
->
its
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I31
action has no sense, it merely binds one to
existence. All existence, however, has no sense.
Evil is interpreted as that which leads to irration alism: to the affirmation of means whose end is
denied. A road to nonentity is the desideratum,
hence all emotional impulses are regarded with horror. For instance: "On no account seek after
revenge! Be the enemy of no one! "--The Hedonism of the weary finds highest expression here. Nothing more utterly foreign Buddhism *
St. Paul: nothing"
its instinct than the the religious man, and,
above all, that form
Christianity with the name "Love. " Moreover,
the cultured and very intellectual classes who
find blessedness Buddhism: race wearied and besotted by centuries philosophical quarrels,
but not beneath all culture as those classes were from which Christianity sprang.
the Buddhistic ideal, there essentially an emancipa
tion from good and evil: very subtle suggestion Beyond all morality thought out its teaching, and this Beyond supposed be
compatible with perfection,--the condition being,
that even good actions are only needed pro tem,
than the Jewish fanaticism
could be more contrary tension, fire, and unrest
? merely means,--that say, free from all action.
56.
order be
sensuality which sanctifies
How very curious see Nihilistic religion such Christianity, sprung from, and keeping with, decrepit and worn-out people, who have
? ? a as
it
is I
in is
to
is
a
of
of to
a to
is is to in
a
of
to
its
in in
. . .
as a
to
In
of a
it is
to
is of
/
? I32
THE WILL TO POWER.
outlived all strong instincts, being transferred step
by step to another environment--that is to say, to a land of young people, who have not yet lived at all. The joy of the final chapter, of the fold and of the evening, preached to barbarians and Germans! How thoroughly all of it must first have been barbarised, Germanised ! To those who had dreamed of a Walhalla : who found happiness only in war! --A supernational religion preached in the midst of chaos, where no nations get existed even.
I 57.
The only way to refute priests and religions is
this: to show that their errors are no longer
beneficent--that they are rather harmful; in short,
that their own "proof of power" no longer holds good. . . .
2. CONCERNING THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY.
158.
Christianity as an historical reality should not be confounded with that one root which its name
recalls. The other roots, from which it has
sprung, are by far the more important. It is an unprecedented abuse of names to identify such
manifestations of decay and such abortions as the "Christian Church," "Christian belief," and
"Christian life," with that Holy Name. What did Christ deny? --Everything which to-day is called Christian,
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I 59.
I33
The whole of the Christian creed--all Christian "truth," is idle falsehood and deception, and is
precisely
bottom of the first Christian movement.
the reverse of that which was at the
All that which in the ecclesiastical sense is
Christian, is just exactly what is most radically
anti-Christian: crowds of things and people appear instead of symbols, history takes the place of
eternal facts, it is forms, rites, and dogmas instead "practice" life. To really
Christian would mean be absolutely indifferent dogmas, cults, priests, church, and theology.
The practice Christianity no more an im possible phantasy than the practice Buddhism is: merely means happiness.
I6O.
Jesus goes straight the point, the "Kingdom
of Heaven" the heart, and He does not find the
means duty the Jewish Church; He even
regards the reality Judaism (its need main
tain itself) nothing; He concerned purely with the inner man.
Neither does He make anything all the coarse forms relating man's intercourse with God: He opposed the whole the teaching
repentance and atonement; He points out how
man ought live order feel himself "deified," and how futile on his part hope live
? properly by showing repentance
and contrition
? ? to
of
of
be
to
/
A4
of
to
to to
in
it is
of toasin a
is
itin to aof
is of all
to to
to toof
of
to
is
is
? I34
THE WILL TO POWER.
for his sins. "Sin is of no account" is practically his chief standpoint.
Sin, repentance, forgiveness,--all
this does not belong to Christianity . . . it is Judaism or
Paganism which has become mixed up with Christ's teaching.
I6 I.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a state of the heart
(of children it is written, "for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven"): it has nothing to do with superterrestrial things. The Kingdom of God "cometh," not chronologically or historically, not
on a certain day in the calendar; it is not something which one day appears and was not previously there; it is a "change of feeling in the individual,"
it is something which may come at any time and which may be absent at any time. . . .
I62.
The thief on the cross :--When the criminal him self, who endures a painful death, declares: "the way this Jesus suffers and dies, without a murmur of revolt or enmity, graciously and resignedly, is the only right way," he assents to the gospel; and by this very fact he is in Paradise. . . .
I63.
Jesus bids us:--not to resist, either by deeds or in our heart, him who ill-treats us;
He bids us admit of no grounds for separating ourselves from our wives;
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I35
He bids us make no distinction between A foreigners and fellow-countrymen, strangers and familiars;
He bids us show anger to no one, and treat no one with contempt;--give alms secretly; not to desire to become rich;--not to swear;--not to
stand in judgment;--become reconciled with our
enemies and forgive offences;--not to in public.
"Blessedness" is nothing promised: it is here,
with we only wish live and act par- ticular way.
I64.
justice abominable corruption
"And whosoever shall not Verily say unto you, shall
? 2. /
? Additions --The whole the
Subsequent
prophet- and thaumaturgist-attitudes and the bad temper; while the conjuring-up supreme
tribunal
(see Mark receive you.
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha," etc. ). The "fig tree" (Matt. xxi. 18, 19): "Now the morning returned into the city, hungered.
And when he saw fig tree the way, came and found nothing thereon, but leaves only,
and said unto Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. "
I65.
The teaching rewards and punishments has become mixed up with Christianity way
quite absurd; everything thereby spoilt.
which
? ? is
us, if
is
in a
he
he in It
of a
in of a
it, of
. vi.
to it,
be
a
. 1 1:
in
as he
of
is I an
to
"
? 136
THE WILL TO POWER.
In the same way, the practice of the first ecclesia militans, of the Apostle Paul and his attitude, is
put forward as if it had been commanded or pre determined.
The subsequent glorification of the actual life and teaching of the first Christians: as if every thing had been prescribed beforehand and had been only a matter of following directions And as for the fulfilment of scriptural prophecies: how much of all that is more than forgery and cooking?
I66.
? /
|-> ordinary life: nothing could have been more
Jesus opposed a real life, a life in truth, to
foreign to His mind than the somewhat heavy nonsense of an "eternal Peter,"--of the eternal duration of a single person. Precisely what He combats is the exaggerated importance of the
"person": how can He wish to immortalise it?
He likewise combats the hierarchy within the community; He never promises a certain propor
tion of reward for a certain proportion of deserts: how can He have meant to teach the doctrine of
punishment and reward in a Beyond P
167.
Christianity is an ingenuous attempt at bringing about a Buddhistic movement in favour of peace, sprung from the very heart of the resenting masses . . . but transformed by Paul into a mysterious pagan cult, which was ultimately able to accord
-
? ? ? *
with the whole of State organisation . . . and which carries on war, condemns, tortures, conjures, and hates.
Paul bases his teaching upon the need of mystery felt by the great masses capable of religious emotions: he seeks a victim, a bloody phantasmagoria, which may be equal to a contest with the images of a secret cult: God on the cross, the drinking of blood, the unio mystica with the "Victim. "
He seeks the prolongation of life after death (the blessed and atoned after-life of the individual soul) which he puts in causal relation with the victim already referred to (according to the type of Dionysos, Mithras, Osiris).
He feels the necessity of bringing notions of guilt and sin into the foreground, not a new practice of life (as Jesus Himself demonstrated and
taught), but a new cult, a new belief, a beliefin a mira
culous metamorphosis ("Salvation" through belief).
He understood the great needs of the pagan world, and he gave quite an absolutely arbitrary
picture of those two plain facts, Christ's life and
death. He gave the whole a new accent, altering the equilibrium everywhere . . . he was one of
the most active destroyers of primitive Christianity.
The attempt made on the life of priests and theo
logians culminated, thanks to Paul, in a new priest:
hood and theology--a ruling caste and a Church. The attempt made to suppress the fussy im*
portance of the "person," culminated in the belief in the eternal "personality" (and in the anxiety concerning "eternal salvation" . . and the
CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
137
? ? ? . ),
in
/
f
? THE WILL TO POWER.
138
most paradoxical exaggeration of individual egoism.
This is the humorous side of the question--
tragic humour: Paul again set up on a large scale
precisely what Jesus had overthrown by His life.
At last, when the Church edifice was complete, it even sanctioned the existence of the State.
I68.
The Church is precisely that against which Jesus inveighed--and against which He taught
His disciples to fight.
I69.
A God who died for our sins, salvation through faith, resurrection after death--all these things are the counterfeit coins of real Christianity, for which that pernicious blockhead Paul must be held responsible.
The life which must serve as an example consists in love and humility; in the abundance of hearty emotion which does not even exclude the lowliest; in the formal renunciation of all desire of making
rights felt, all defence; conquest, the
? personal triumph; the belief salva this world, despite all sorrow, opposition, and
forgiveness and the absence anger and contempt; the absence desire rewarded;
the refusal be bound anybody; abandon ment that most spiritual and intellectual;
sense
tion death;
? ? to all
in
in of
to is
of
in
its
of to a
in
of
in
to
be of
in
in
.
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I39
A. --in fact, a very proud life controlled by the will 4 *
of a servile and poor life.
Once the Church had allowed itself to take
over all the Christian practice, and had formally
sanctioned the State,--that kind of life which Jesus combats and condemns,--it was obliged to lay
the sense of Christianity in other things than early Christian ideals--that is to say, in the faith in
incredible things, in the ceremonial of prayers, worship, feasts, etc. etc. The notions "sin," "for giveness," "punishment," "reward"--everything,
in fact, which had nothing in common with, and was quite absent from, primitive Christianity, now
comes into the foreground.
An appalling stew of Greek philosophy and
Judaism; asceticism; continual judgments and condemnations; the order of rank, etc.
17o.
Christianity has, from the first, always trans formed the symbolical into crude realities:
(1) The antitheses "true life" and "false life. " were misunderstood and changed into "life here" and "life beyond. "
(2) The notion "eternal life," as opposed to
the personal life which is ephemeral, is translated into "personal immortality";
(3) The process of fraternising by means of sharing the same food and drink, after the Hebrew
Arabian manner, is interpreted as the "miracle of transubstantiation. "
(4) "Resurrection" which was intended to
? ? ? ? I4O
THE WILL TO POWER.
mean the entrance to the "true life," in the sense of being intellectually "born again," becomes an historical contingency, supposed to take place at some moment after death;
(5) The teaching of the Son of man as the "Son of God,"--that is to say, the life-relationship
between man and God,--becomes the "second person of the Trinity," and thus the filial relation ship of every man--even the lowest--to God, is done away with ;
(6) Salvation through faith (that is to say, that
there is no other way to this filial relationship to God, save through the practice of life taught by
Christ) becomes transformed into the belief that
there is a miraculous way of atoning for all sin; though not through our own endeavours, but by means of Christ:
For all these purposes, "Christ on the Cross"
had to be interpreted afresh. The death itself
would certainly not be the principal feature of the
event . . . it was only another sign pointing to
the way in which one should behave towards the authorities and the laws of the world--that one
was not to defend oneself--this was the exemplary life.
I7 I.
Concerning the psychology of Paul--The im
portant fact is Christ's death. This remains to be explained. . . . That there may be truth or
error in an explanation never entered these people's heads: one day a sublime possibility
strikes them, "His death might mean so and so "
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I4I
--and it forthwith becomes so and so. An hypo
thesis is proved by the sublime ardour it lends to its discoverer. .
"The proof of strength": i. e. , a thought is
demonstrated by effects ("by their fruits,"
the Bible ingenuously says); that which fires en thusiasm must be true,--what one loses one's blood for must be true--
every department this world thought,
the sudden feeling power which an idea imparts him who responsible for placed the credit of that idea:--and as there seems no other way honouring idea than by calling true,
the first epithet honoured with the word true. How could have any effect other wise? was imagined by some power: that power were not real, could not the cause anything. The thought then understood
inspired: the effect causes has something the violent nature of demoniacal influence--
thought which decadent like Paul could
? not resist and which thus "proved" true! ! !
completely yields,
All these holy epileptics and visionaries did not possess thousandth part the honesty
philologist, nowadays, reads text, tests the truth an historical
self-criticism with which
event. cretins.
Beside us, such people were moral 72.
thing effective: total absence
true, intellectual
matters little whether provided
? ? It
it. . .
be
a . is
of
of it
a
of
he
is
it, is
be
if
to
I
a
it
of
or
to
aait it
it
is an
of
be
is
A as to
. of In . a It.
in is ofof
as
of
its
? I42
THE WILL TO POWER.
uprightness. Everything is good, whether it be lying, slander, or shameless "cooking," provided
it serve to heighten the degree of heat to the
point at which people "believe. "
We are face to face with an actual school for
the teaching of the means wherewith men are seduced to a belief: we see systematic contempt for
those spheres whence contradiction might come (that is to say, for reason, philosophy, wisdom,
doubt, and caution); a shameless praising and glorification of the teaching, with continual refer
ences to the fact that it was God who presented us with it--that the apostle signifies nothing--
that no criticism is brooked, but only faith, ac ceptance; that it is the greatest blessing and
favour to receive such a doctrine of salvation; that the state in which one should receive
ought one the profoundest thankfulness and humility.
The resentment which the lowly feel against all those high places, continually turned
account: the fact that this teaching revealed them the reverse the wisdom the world, against the power the world, seduces them
This teaching convinces the outcasts and the
? botched all sorts and conditions; blessedness, advantages, and privileges
insignificant and most humble men;
promises
the most fanaticises the poor, the small, and the foolish, and fills them
with insane vanity, though they were the mean
ing and salt the earth. -
Again, say, all this cannot be sufficiently
contemned, we spare ourselves criticism the
?
? ? ? I2O THE WILL TO POWER.
in their god; (2) that there is no other access, no direct access to god, save through them. The
second condition alone gives rise to the concept "heterodoxy"; the first to the concept "dis
believers" (that is to say, he who believes in another god).
I4 I.
A Criticism of the Holy Lie. --That a lie is allowed in pursuit of holy ends is a principle which belongs to the theory of all priestcraft, and the object of this inquiry is to discover to
what extent it belongs to its practice.
But philosophers, too, whenever they intend
taking over the leadership of mankind, with the
ulterior motives of priests in their minds, have never failed to arrogate to themselves the right to lie: Plato above all. But the most elaborate of lies is the double lie, developed by the typically
Arian philosophers of the Vedanta: two systems, contradicting each other in all their main points, but interchangeable, complementary, and mutually
expletory, when educational ends were in question. The lie of the one has to create a condition in
which the truth of the other can alone become
intelligible.
How far does the holy priests and philo sophers go? --The question here what hypo
theses do they advance regard education, and what are the dogmas they are compelled
invent order do justice these hypotheses? First they must have power, authority, and
absolute credibility on their side.
? . . .
? ? : in
to
in to
lie of
to is, to
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION. I2 I
Secondly: they must have the direction of the whole of Nature, so that everything affecting the
individual seems to be determined by their law. Thirdly: their domain of power must be very
extensive, in order that its control may escape
the notice of those they subject: they must know
the penal code of the life beyond--of the life
"after death,"--and, of course, the means where
by the road to blessedness may be discovered.
They have to put the notion of a natural course of things out of sight, but as they are intelligent
and thoughtful people, they are able to promise a
host of effects, which they naturally say are con
ditioned by prayer or by the strict observance of their law. They can, moreover, prescribe a large
number of things which are exceedingly reasonable --only they must not point to experience of
empiricism as the source of this wisdom, but to revelation or to the fruits of the "most severe
exercises of penance. "
The holy lie, therefore, applies principally to the
purpose of an action (the natural purpose, reason,
is made to vanish: a moral purpose, the observ ance of some law, a service to God, seems to be
the purpose): to the consequence of an action (the natural consequence is interpreted as something
supernatural, and, in order to be on surer ground, other incontrollable and supernatural consequences are foretold).
In this way the concepts good and evil are
created, and seem quite divorced from the natural concepts: "useful," "harmful," "life-promoting,"
? "life-reducing,"--indeed,
inasmuch as another life
? ? ? I22 THE WILL TO POWER.
is imagined, the former concepts may even be antagonistic to Nature's concepts of good and evil.
In this way, the proverbial concept "conscience"
is created: an inner voice, which, though it makes
itself heard in regard to every action, does not
measure the worth of that action according to
results, but according its intention the con
Punishes and rewards, who recognises and carefully
observes the law-book the priests, and who
particular about sending them into the world his mouthpieces and plenipotentiaries; (2) After Life, which, alone, the great penal machine
man, understood the knowledge that good and evil are permanent values--that God himself
formity
this intention the "law. "
The holy therefore invented: (1) god who
? supposed
be active--to this end the immor tality the soul was invented; (3) conscience
speaks through
conformity with priestly precepts; (4) Morality
the denial all natural processes, the subjection phenomena moral order, the inter
pretation all phenomena
moral order things (that punishment and reward),
the effects
say, the concept
happiness
whenever its counsels are
the only power and only creator transformations; (5) Truth given, revealed, and identical with the teaching
the priests: the condition all salvation and
ment supposed due morality? --The
unhinging reason, the reduction all motives fear and hope (punishment and reward); dependence
this and the next world.
short: what the price paid for the improve
? ? of in
of of
toin
of
as as
a
to
of as
of a
as in
in
anas is
its
be
of
to to
In
as of to is all
of
lie
to to
as is
to as
of
of all
is of
to a
it,
as
of
a or
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I23
upon the tutelage of priests, and upon a formulary
exactitude which is supposed to express a divine will; the implantation of a "conscience" which establishes a false science in the place of experience and experiment: as though all one had to do or
had not to do were predetermined--a kind of castration of the seeking and striving spirit;--in short : the worst mutilation of man that can be imagined, and it is pretended -that "the good man" is the result.
Practically speaking, all reason, the whole heri tage of intelligence, subtlety, and caution, the first condition of the priestly canon, is arbitrarily re
? duced, when it is too late, to a simple mechanical
process: conformity with the law becomes a pur
pose in itself, it is the highest purpose; Life no
longer contains any problems;--the whole conception
of the world is polluted by the notion of punish
aversion to Life, and even a criticism and a con
temning of Truth transformed the mind, into priestly prevarication; the striving after truth,
into the study of the Scriptures, into the way
ment;--Life itself, owing
to the fact that the priest's life is upheld as the non plus ultra of
perfection, is transformed into a denial and pol lution of life;--the concept "God" represents an
theologian.
42.
become
whole book founded upon the holy lie. Was the well-being humanity that inspired the
whole this system? Was this kind man,
criticism of the Law-Book of Manu. --The
? ? of
it
A
of
is
a
it.
of
I
is
to
in
? I24
THE WILL TO POWER.
who believes in the interested nature of every action, interested or not interested in the success
of this system ? The desire to improve mankind
--whence comes the inspiration to this feeling? Whence is the concept improvement taken P
We find a class of men, the sacerdotal class, who
consider themselves the standard pattern, the highest example and most perfect expression of
the type man. The notion of "improving" man kind, to this class of men, means to make man
kind like themselves. They believe in their own superiority, they will be superior in practice: the
cause of the holy lie is The Will to Power. . . . Establishment of the dominion: to this end,
ideas which place a non plus ultra of power with the priesthood are made to prevail. Power ac quired by lying was the result of the recognition
? already possessed physically, in a military form. . . . Lying as a supplement to power--this is a new concept of
"truth. "
It is a mistake to presuppose unconscious and innocent development in this quarter--a sort of
of the fact that it was not
self-deception.
Fanatics are not the discoverers
of such exhaustive systems of oppression. . . . Cold-blooded reflection must have been at work
here;
showed when he worked out his "State"--"One
the same sort of reflection which Plato
must desire the means when one desires the end. " Concerning this political maxim, all legislators
have always been quite clear.
We possess the classical model, and it is speci
fically Arian: we can therefore hold the most
? ? ? the Egyptians -
I 44.
CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I25
gifted and most reflective type of man responsible for the most systematic lie that has ever been told. . . . Everywhere almost the lie was copied, and thus Arian influence corrupted the world. . . .
I43.
Much is said to-day about the Semitic spirit of the Wew Testament: but the thing referred to is merely priestcraft,-and in the purest example
of an Arian law-book, in Manu, this kind of "Semitic spirit"--that is to say, Sacerdotalism, is
worse than anywhere else.
The development of the Jewish hierarchy is not
original: they learnt the scheme in Babylon--it
is Arian. When, later on, the same thing became dominant in Europe, under the preponderance
of Germanic blood, this was in conformity to the spirit of the ruling race: a striking case of atavism. The Germanic middle ages aimed at a revival of the Arian order of castes.
Mohammedanism in its turn learned from Christianity the use of a "Beyond" as an instru
-
ment of punishment.
The scheme of a permanent community, with
priests at its head--this oldest product of Asia's great culture in the domain of organisation--
naturally provoked reflection and imitation in every way. --Plato is an example of this, but above all,
? Moralities and religions are the principal means by which one can modify men into whatever one
? ? ? I 26 THE WILL TO POWER.
likes; provided one is possessed of an overflow
of creative power, and can cause one's will to pre vail over long periods of time.
I 45.
If one wish to see an affirmative Arian religion which is the product of a ruling class, one should read the law-book of Manu. (The deification of the feeling of power in the Brahmin: it is in teresting to note that it originated in the warrior caste, and was later transferred to the priests. )
If one wish to see an affirmative religion of the Semitic order, which is the product of the ruling class, one should read the Koran or the earlier
portions of the Old Testament. (Mohammedan ism, as a religion for men, has profound contempt
for the sentimentality and prevarication of Christi anity, . . . which, according to Mohammedans,
is a woman's religion. )
If one wish to see a negative religion of the
Semitic order, which is the product of the op Pressed class, one should read the New Testament (which, according to Indian and Arian points
of view, is a religion for the Chandala).
If one wish to see a negative Arian religion, which is the product of the ruling classes, one
should study Buddhism.
It is quite in the nature of things that we have
no Arian religion which is the product of the
? oppressed classes;
contradiction: a race of nasters is either mount or else it goes to the dogs.
for that would have been a para
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I46.
127
Religion, per has nothing do with
morality; yet both offshoots the Jewish religion are essentially moral religions--which prescribe the
rules living, and procure obedience their principles by means rewards and punishment.
47.
Paganism -Christianity. --Paganism
that which says yea all that natural, innocence
being natural, "naturalness. " Christianity
that which says no all that natural,
certain lack dignity being natural hostility to Nature.
"Innocent":--Petronius innocent, for in stance. Beside this happy man Christian
? absolutely devoid
the Christian status condition, though
innocence. But since even ultimately only natural
must not be regarded such,
the term "Christian" soon begins mean the counterfeiting the psychological interpretation.
I48.
The Christian priest from the root mortal enemy sensuality: one cannot imagine greater
contrast his attitude than the guileless, slightly awed, and solemn attitude, which the religious rites of the most honourable women Athens
maintained the presence the symbol sex.
In all non-ascetic religions the procreative act the secret per se: sort symbol perfection
? ? to of in
of
of
of
a it to
is
ofis is
I
of
of
is
is
of to in
se, of
a it
of to ;is to
inaa a
of as itis to
is
is is a is
in
? I28 THE WILL TO POWER.
and of the designs of the future: re-birth, im. mortality.
I 49.
greatest fetter, the most telling spur, and the strongest pinion,
Our belief in ourselves is the
Christianity ought to have elevated the innocence of man to the position of an article of belief-- men would then have become gods: in those days believing was still possible.
I 5 O.
The egregious history: were the corruption Paganism that opened the road Christianity. As matter fact, was the enfeeblement and moralisation of the man of
--> antiquity. The new interpretation natural functions, which made them appear like vices, had already gone before
I5
Religions are ultimately wrecked by the belief
? morality.
God becomes untenable,--hence "Atheism,"--as
The idea the Christian moral
though there could no other god.
Culture likewise wrecked by the belief
morality. For when the necessary and only possible conditions growth are revealed,
nobody will any longer countenance (Buddh ism).
? ? it
of it
as if it
of its
be ! alie of
is
of
in
to
in
of
I.
of
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I 52.
I29
The physiology of Nihilistic religions. --All in
all, the Nihilistic religions are systematised histories of sickness described in religious and moral ter
minology.
*
In pagan cultures it is around the interpretation
of the great annual cycles that the religious cult turns; in Christianity it is around a cycle of
paralytic phenomena.
I 53.
This Nihilistic religion gathers together all the
decadent elements and things of like order which it can find in antiquity, viz. :--
(a) The weak and the botched (the refuse of the ancient world, and that of which it rid itself with most violence).
(b) Those who are morally obsessed and anti pagan.
(c) Those who are weary of politics and in different (the blase? Romans), the denationalised,
who know not what they are.
(d) Those who are tired of themselves--who
are happy to be party to a subterranean conspiracy.
I 54.
Buddha versus Christ. --Among the Nihilistic religions, Christianity and Buddhism may always
be sharply distinguished. Buddhism is the ex
pression of a fine evening, perfectly sweet and
mild--it is a sort of gratitude towards all that VOL. I. I
-
? ? ? ? I30
THE WILL TO POWER.
lies hidden, including that which it entirely lacks, viz. , bitterness, disillusionment, and resent ment. Finally it possesses lofty intellectual love; it has got over all the subtlety of philosophical
contradictions, and is even resting after
precisely from that source that intellectual glory and its glow
though
derives sunset
originated the higher classes).
Christianity degenerative movement, con
sisting
elements: race,
all the morbid elements which are
attractive and which gravitate one another. therefore not national religion, not
determined by race:
all kinds decaying and excremental not the expression the downfall from the root, an agglomeration
appeals the disinherited foundation resent
? everywhere;
ment against all that
need
damnation opposed
successful and dominant: symbol which represents the
everything successful and dominant. every form intellectual move
consists
ment, philosophy: takes up the cudgels
for idiots, and utters curse upon intellect. Resentment against those who are gifted, learned,
intellectually independent: all these suspects the element of success and domination.
55.
Buddhism this thought prevails: "All passions, everything which creates emotions and _-leads blood, call action"--to this extent
alone are believers warned against evil. For
mutually
? ? its
all is it it
to
In
is
to in It of
It
it . of of (it it is . a is
of it is,is in to of is
is aaa
to
I a isit
it ofa
of
in a of
it
all
of
of
a it,
to to of asit
->
its
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I31
action has no sense, it merely binds one to
existence. All existence, however, has no sense.
Evil is interpreted as that which leads to irration alism: to the affirmation of means whose end is
denied. A road to nonentity is the desideratum,
hence all emotional impulses are regarded with horror. For instance: "On no account seek after
revenge! Be the enemy of no one! "--The Hedonism of the weary finds highest expression here. Nothing more utterly foreign Buddhism *
St. Paul: nothing"
its instinct than the the religious man, and,
above all, that form
Christianity with the name "Love. " Moreover,
the cultured and very intellectual classes who
find blessedness Buddhism: race wearied and besotted by centuries philosophical quarrels,
but not beneath all culture as those classes were from which Christianity sprang.
the Buddhistic ideal, there essentially an emancipa
tion from good and evil: very subtle suggestion Beyond all morality thought out its teaching, and this Beyond supposed be
compatible with perfection,--the condition being,
that even good actions are only needed pro tem,
than the Jewish fanaticism
could be more contrary tension, fire, and unrest
? merely means,--that say, free from all action.
56.
order be
sensuality which sanctifies
How very curious see Nihilistic religion such Christianity, sprung from, and keeping with, decrepit and worn-out people, who have
? ? a as
it
is I
in is
to
is
a
of
of to
a to
is is to in
a
of
to
its
in in
. . .
as a
to
In
of a
it is
to
is of
/
? I32
THE WILL TO POWER.
outlived all strong instincts, being transferred step
by step to another environment--that is to say, to a land of young people, who have not yet lived at all. The joy of the final chapter, of the fold and of the evening, preached to barbarians and Germans! How thoroughly all of it must first have been barbarised, Germanised ! To those who had dreamed of a Walhalla : who found happiness only in war! --A supernational religion preached in the midst of chaos, where no nations get existed even.
I 57.
The only way to refute priests and religions is
this: to show that their errors are no longer
beneficent--that they are rather harmful; in short,
that their own "proof of power" no longer holds good. . . .
2. CONCERNING THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY.
158.
Christianity as an historical reality should not be confounded with that one root which its name
recalls. The other roots, from which it has
sprung, are by far the more important. It is an unprecedented abuse of names to identify such
manifestations of decay and such abortions as the "Christian Church," "Christian belief," and
"Christian life," with that Holy Name. What did Christ deny? --Everything which to-day is called Christian,
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I 59.
I33
The whole of the Christian creed--all Christian "truth," is idle falsehood and deception, and is
precisely
bottom of the first Christian movement.
the reverse of that which was at the
All that which in the ecclesiastical sense is
Christian, is just exactly what is most radically
anti-Christian: crowds of things and people appear instead of symbols, history takes the place of
eternal facts, it is forms, rites, and dogmas instead "practice" life. To really
Christian would mean be absolutely indifferent dogmas, cults, priests, church, and theology.
The practice Christianity no more an im possible phantasy than the practice Buddhism is: merely means happiness.
I6O.
Jesus goes straight the point, the "Kingdom
of Heaven" the heart, and He does not find the
means duty the Jewish Church; He even
regards the reality Judaism (its need main
tain itself) nothing; He concerned purely with the inner man.
Neither does He make anything all the coarse forms relating man's intercourse with God: He opposed the whole the teaching
repentance and atonement; He points out how
man ought live order feel himself "deified," and how futile on his part hope live
? properly by showing repentance
and contrition
? ? to
of
of
be
to
/
A4
of
to
to to
in
it is
of toasin a
is
itin to aof
is of all
to to
to toof
of
to
is
is
? I34
THE WILL TO POWER.
for his sins. "Sin is of no account" is practically his chief standpoint.
Sin, repentance, forgiveness,--all
this does not belong to Christianity . . . it is Judaism or
Paganism which has become mixed up with Christ's teaching.
I6 I.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a state of the heart
(of children it is written, "for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven"): it has nothing to do with superterrestrial things. The Kingdom of God "cometh," not chronologically or historically, not
on a certain day in the calendar; it is not something which one day appears and was not previously there; it is a "change of feeling in the individual,"
it is something which may come at any time and which may be absent at any time. . . .
I62.
The thief on the cross :--When the criminal him self, who endures a painful death, declares: "the way this Jesus suffers and dies, without a murmur of revolt or enmity, graciously and resignedly, is the only right way," he assents to the gospel; and by this very fact he is in Paradise. . . .
I63.
Jesus bids us:--not to resist, either by deeds or in our heart, him who ill-treats us;
He bids us admit of no grounds for separating ourselves from our wives;
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I35
He bids us make no distinction between A foreigners and fellow-countrymen, strangers and familiars;
He bids us show anger to no one, and treat no one with contempt;--give alms secretly; not to desire to become rich;--not to swear;--not to
stand in judgment;--become reconciled with our
enemies and forgive offences;--not to in public.
"Blessedness" is nothing promised: it is here,
with we only wish live and act par- ticular way.
I64.
justice abominable corruption
"And whosoever shall not Verily say unto you, shall
? 2. /
? Additions --The whole the
Subsequent
prophet- and thaumaturgist-attitudes and the bad temper; while the conjuring-up supreme
tribunal
(see Mark receive you.
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha," etc. ). The "fig tree" (Matt. xxi. 18, 19): "Now the morning returned into the city, hungered.
And when he saw fig tree the way, came and found nothing thereon, but leaves only,
and said unto Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. "
I65.
The teaching rewards and punishments has become mixed up with Christianity way
quite absurd; everything thereby spoilt.
which
? ? is
us, if
is
in a
he
he in It
of a
in of a
it, of
. vi.
to it,
be
a
. 1 1:
in
as he
of
is I an
to
"
? 136
THE WILL TO POWER.
In the same way, the practice of the first ecclesia militans, of the Apostle Paul and his attitude, is
put forward as if it had been commanded or pre determined.
The subsequent glorification of the actual life and teaching of the first Christians: as if every thing had been prescribed beforehand and had been only a matter of following directions And as for the fulfilment of scriptural prophecies: how much of all that is more than forgery and cooking?
I66.
? /
|-> ordinary life: nothing could have been more
Jesus opposed a real life, a life in truth, to
foreign to His mind than the somewhat heavy nonsense of an "eternal Peter,"--of the eternal duration of a single person. Precisely what He combats is the exaggerated importance of the
"person": how can He wish to immortalise it?
He likewise combats the hierarchy within the community; He never promises a certain propor
tion of reward for a certain proportion of deserts: how can He have meant to teach the doctrine of
punishment and reward in a Beyond P
167.
Christianity is an ingenuous attempt at bringing about a Buddhistic movement in favour of peace, sprung from the very heart of the resenting masses . . . but transformed by Paul into a mysterious pagan cult, which was ultimately able to accord
-
? ? ? *
with the whole of State organisation . . . and which carries on war, condemns, tortures, conjures, and hates.
Paul bases his teaching upon the need of mystery felt by the great masses capable of religious emotions: he seeks a victim, a bloody phantasmagoria, which may be equal to a contest with the images of a secret cult: God on the cross, the drinking of blood, the unio mystica with the "Victim. "
He seeks the prolongation of life after death (the blessed and atoned after-life of the individual soul) which he puts in causal relation with the victim already referred to (according to the type of Dionysos, Mithras, Osiris).
He feels the necessity of bringing notions of guilt and sin into the foreground, not a new practice of life (as Jesus Himself demonstrated and
taught), but a new cult, a new belief, a beliefin a mira
culous metamorphosis ("Salvation" through belief).
He understood the great needs of the pagan world, and he gave quite an absolutely arbitrary
picture of those two plain facts, Christ's life and
death. He gave the whole a new accent, altering the equilibrium everywhere . . . he was one of
the most active destroyers of primitive Christianity.
The attempt made on the life of priests and theo
logians culminated, thanks to Paul, in a new priest:
hood and theology--a ruling caste and a Church. The attempt made to suppress the fussy im*
portance of the "person," culminated in the belief in the eternal "personality" (and in the anxiety concerning "eternal salvation" . . and the
CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
137
? ? ? . ),
in
/
f
? THE WILL TO POWER.
138
most paradoxical exaggeration of individual egoism.
This is the humorous side of the question--
tragic humour: Paul again set up on a large scale
precisely what Jesus had overthrown by His life.
At last, when the Church edifice was complete, it even sanctioned the existence of the State.
I68.
The Church is precisely that against which Jesus inveighed--and against which He taught
His disciples to fight.
I69.
A God who died for our sins, salvation through faith, resurrection after death--all these things are the counterfeit coins of real Christianity, for which that pernicious blockhead Paul must be held responsible.
The life which must serve as an example consists in love and humility; in the abundance of hearty emotion which does not even exclude the lowliest; in the formal renunciation of all desire of making
rights felt, all defence; conquest, the
? personal triumph; the belief salva this world, despite all sorrow, opposition, and
forgiveness and the absence anger and contempt; the absence desire rewarded;
the refusal be bound anybody; abandon ment that most spiritual and intellectual;
sense
tion death;
? ? to all
in
in of
to is
of
in
its
of to a
in
of
in
to
be of
in
in
.
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I39
A. --in fact, a very proud life controlled by the will 4 *
of a servile and poor life.
Once the Church had allowed itself to take
over all the Christian practice, and had formally
sanctioned the State,--that kind of life which Jesus combats and condemns,--it was obliged to lay
the sense of Christianity in other things than early Christian ideals--that is to say, in the faith in
incredible things, in the ceremonial of prayers, worship, feasts, etc. etc. The notions "sin," "for giveness," "punishment," "reward"--everything,
in fact, which had nothing in common with, and was quite absent from, primitive Christianity, now
comes into the foreground.
An appalling stew of Greek philosophy and
Judaism; asceticism; continual judgments and condemnations; the order of rank, etc.
17o.
Christianity has, from the first, always trans formed the symbolical into crude realities:
(1) The antitheses "true life" and "false life. " were misunderstood and changed into "life here" and "life beyond. "
(2) The notion "eternal life," as opposed to
the personal life which is ephemeral, is translated into "personal immortality";
(3) The process of fraternising by means of sharing the same food and drink, after the Hebrew
Arabian manner, is interpreted as the "miracle of transubstantiation. "
(4) "Resurrection" which was intended to
? ? ? ? I4O
THE WILL TO POWER.
mean the entrance to the "true life," in the sense of being intellectually "born again," becomes an historical contingency, supposed to take place at some moment after death;
(5) The teaching of the Son of man as the "Son of God,"--that is to say, the life-relationship
between man and God,--becomes the "second person of the Trinity," and thus the filial relation ship of every man--even the lowest--to God, is done away with ;
(6) Salvation through faith (that is to say, that
there is no other way to this filial relationship to God, save through the practice of life taught by
Christ) becomes transformed into the belief that
there is a miraculous way of atoning for all sin; though not through our own endeavours, but by means of Christ:
For all these purposes, "Christ on the Cross"
had to be interpreted afresh. The death itself
would certainly not be the principal feature of the
event . . . it was only another sign pointing to
the way in which one should behave towards the authorities and the laws of the world--that one
was not to defend oneself--this was the exemplary life.
I7 I.
Concerning the psychology of Paul--The im
portant fact is Christ's death. This remains to be explained. . . . That there may be truth or
error in an explanation never entered these people's heads: one day a sublime possibility
strikes them, "His death might mean so and so "
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I4I
--and it forthwith becomes so and so. An hypo
thesis is proved by the sublime ardour it lends to its discoverer. .
"The proof of strength": i. e. , a thought is
demonstrated by effects ("by their fruits,"
the Bible ingenuously says); that which fires en thusiasm must be true,--what one loses one's blood for must be true--
every department this world thought,
the sudden feeling power which an idea imparts him who responsible for placed the credit of that idea:--and as there seems no other way honouring idea than by calling true,
the first epithet honoured with the word true. How could have any effect other wise? was imagined by some power: that power were not real, could not the cause anything. The thought then understood
inspired: the effect causes has something the violent nature of demoniacal influence--
thought which decadent like Paul could
? not resist and which thus "proved" true! ! !
completely yields,
All these holy epileptics and visionaries did not possess thousandth part the honesty
philologist, nowadays, reads text, tests the truth an historical
self-criticism with which
event. cretins.
Beside us, such people were moral 72.
thing effective: total absence
true, intellectual
matters little whether provided
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? I42
THE WILL TO POWER.
uprightness. Everything is good, whether it be lying, slander, or shameless "cooking," provided
it serve to heighten the degree of heat to the
point at which people "believe. "
We are face to face with an actual school for
the teaching of the means wherewith men are seduced to a belief: we see systematic contempt for
those spheres whence contradiction might come (that is to say, for reason, philosophy, wisdom,
doubt, and caution); a shameless praising and glorification of the teaching, with continual refer
ences to the fact that it was God who presented us with it--that the apostle signifies nothing--
that no criticism is brooked, but only faith, ac ceptance; that it is the greatest blessing and
favour to receive such a doctrine of salvation; that the state in which one should receive
ought one the profoundest thankfulness and humility.
The resentment which the lowly feel against all those high places, continually turned
account: the fact that this teaching revealed them the reverse the wisdom the world, against the power the world, seduces them
This teaching convinces the outcasts and the
? botched all sorts and conditions; blessedness, advantages, and privileges
insignificant and most humble men;
promises
the most fanaticises the poor, the small, and the foolish, and fills them
with insane vanity, though they were the mean
ing and salt the earth. -
Again, say, all this cannot be sufficiently
contemned, we spare ourselves criticism the
?
