It lacks all
knowledge
of the qualities of a higher
nature.
nature.
Nietzsche - Works - v14 - Will to Power - a
That which is wrong with
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I59
Christianity that does none the things that Christ commanded.
contempt.
mean life, but seen through the eye
I94.
The entrance into the real life--a man saves his own life living the life the multitude.
95.
Christianity has become something fundament
ally different from what its Founder wished
be. the great anti-pagan movement anti
quity, formulated with the use the life, teaching,
and "words" the Founder Christianity, but
? interpreted quite arbitrarily, according
scheme
embodying profoundly different needs: translated
into the language all the subterranean religions then existing.
the rise Pessimism (whereas Jesus wished bring the peace and the happiness
the lambs): and moreover the Pessimism the weak, the inferior, the suffering, and the
oppressed.
Its mortal enemies are (1) Power, whether the form character, intellect, taste, and
"worldliness"; (2) the "good cheer" classical times, the noble levity and scepticism, hard pride,
eccentric dissipation, and cold frugality the sage,
Greek refinement manners, words, and form.
Its mortal enemy much the Roman the Greek.
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? 16O THE WILL TO POWER.
The attempt on the part of anti-paganism to
establish itself on a philosophical basis, and to
make tenets possible: shows taste for the ambiguous figures antique culture, and above
all for Plato, who was, more than any other, an
anti-Hellene and Semite instinct. shows taste for Stoicism, which
also essentially
("dignity"
severity, law; virtue held be greatness, self
the work Semites
regarded
responsibility, authority, greatest sovereignty oneself--this Semitic. The Stoic an Arabian
over sheik wrapped Greek togas and notions.
? 196.
Christianity only resumes the fight which had
already been begun against the classical ideal and noble religion.
As matter fact, the whole process
transformation only an adaptation
needs and
masses then
believed
"great mother," and which demanded the follow
ing things religion: (1) hopes beyond,
(2) the bloody phantasmagoria animal sacrifice (the mystery), (3) holy legend and the redeeming
the
community.
increasing anti-pagan tendency--those
Epicurus combated,-- more exactly, those
intelligence
the religious
the level
existing:--those masses
which Isis, Mithras, Dionysos, and the
the world, super hierarchy part
short, Christianity everywhere fitted the already prevailing and
deed, (4) asceticism, denial stitious "purification," (5)
cults which
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION. * I6I
religions proper to the lower herd, women, slaves,
and ignoble classes.
The misunderstandings are therefore the
following:--
(1) The immortality of the individual;
(2) The assumed existence of another world;
(3) The absurd notion of punishment and expiation in the heart of the interpretation of existence;
(4) The profanation of the divine nature of
man, instead of its accentuation, and the con
struction of a very profound chasm, which can
only be crossed by the help of a miracle or by means of the most thorough self-contempt;
(5) The whole world of corrupted imagination
and morbid passion, instead of a simple and
loving life of action, instead of Buddhistic happiness attainable on earth;
? priesthood, theology, cults, and sacraments; in short, every
(6) An ecclesiastical order with a
thing that Jesus of Nazareth combated;
(7) The miraculous in everything and every body, superstition too: while precisely the trait
which distinguished Judaism and primitive Christianity was their repugnance to miracles and their relative rationalism.
I97.
The psychological pre-requisites:--Ignorance and lack of culture,--the sort of ignorance which has un
learned every kind of shame: let any one imagine
those impudent saints in the heart of Athens; VOL. I. L
? ? ? I62 THE WILL TO POWER.
The Jewish instinct of a chosen people: they appropriate all the virtues, without further ado,
as their own, and regard the rest of the world as their opposite; this is a profound sign of spiritual depravity;
The total lack of real aims and real duties, for which other virtues are required than those of the
State undertook this work for them: and the impudent people still behaved as though they had no need of the State. "Except ye become as little children"--oh, how far we are from this psychological ingenuousness!
I98.
The Founder of Christianity had to pay dearly
for having directed His teaching at the lowest classes of Jewish society and intelligence. They
understood Him only according to the limitations of their own spirit. . . . It was a disgrace to concoct a history of salvation, a personal God, a personal Saviour, a personal immortality, and to have
retained all the meanness of the "person," and of the "history" of a doctrine which denies the reality of all that is personal and historical.
The legend of salvation takes the place of the symbolic "now" and "all time," of the symbolic
"here" and "everywhere"; and miracles appear instead of the psychological symbol.
I 99.
Nothing is less innocent than the New Testa ment. The soil from which it sprang is known.
bigot--the
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
163
These people, possessed of an inflexible will to assert themselves, and who, once they had lost
natural hold on life, and had long existed without any right existence, still knew how
prevail by means hypotheses which were unnatural they were imaginary (calling them
selves the chosen people, the community saints, the people the promised land, and the
"Church"): these people made use their pia fraus with such skill, and with such "clean
consciences,"
when they preach morality. When Jews step forward the personification innocence, the danger must great. While reading the New Testament man should have his small fund of intelligence, mistrust, and wickedness constantly at hand.
People the lowest origin, partly mob, out casts not only from good society, but also from
that one cannot be too cautious
? respectable society; grown away
atmosphere culture, and free from discipline; ignorant, without even suspicion the fact that
spiritual matters; word--the Jews: an instinctively crafty people,
able create an advantage, means seduction out every conceivable hypothesis superstition,
even out ignorance itself.
2OO.
conscience can also rule
regard Christianity
seductive lie that has ever yet existed--as the greatest and most impious lie: can discern the
the most fatal and
from the
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? 164
THE WILL TO POWER.
last sprouts and branches of its ideal beneath every form of disguise, I decline to enter into any compromise or false position in reference to it-- I urge people to declare open war with
The morality paltry people the measure all things: this the most repugnant kind
degeneracy that civilisation has ever yet brought
However modest one's demands may be concerning intellectual cleanliness, when one
into existence. And this kind ideal
still, under the name "God," over men's heads
2O I.
help experiencing sort inexpressible feeling dis
touches the New Testament one cannot
comfort;
the least qualified people will have their say
its pages, regard the greatest problems
existence, and claim sit judgment on
such matters, exceeds limits. The impudent levity with which the most unwieldy problems
are spoken here (life, the world, God, the purpose life), they were not problems
all, but the most simple things which these little bigots know all about ! ! !
2O2.
This was the most fatal form insanity that has ever yet existed on earth:--when these little lying abortions bigotry begin laying claim
the words "God," "last judgment," "truth,"
for the unbounded cheek with which
hanging
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
"love,33 go wisdom," "Holy Spirit," and thereby
the salt, the standard, and the measure of all
persecute them was an egregious act of antique folly: this was taking them too seriously; it was
making them serious.
The whole fatality was made possible by the
fact that a similar form of megalomania was
already in existence, the Jewish form (once the
gulf separating the Jews from the Christian-Jews
was bridged, the Christian-Jews were compelled to employ those self-preservative measures afresh
which were discovered by the Jewish instinct, for their own self-preservation, after having accent
uated them); and again through the fact that Greek moral philosophy had done everything
that could be done to prepare the way for moral-fanaticism, even among Greeks and Romans,
and to render it palatable. . . . Plato, the great importer of corruption, who was the first
who refused to see Nature in morality, and who had already deprived the Greek gods of all their worth by his notion "good," was already tainted with Jewish bigotry (in Egypt? ).
2O3.
These small virtues of gregarious animals do not by any means lead to "eternal life": to put
distinguishing
themselves from the rest of the world; when such men begin to transvalue values to suit themselves, as though they were the sense,
things;
then all that one should do is this: build lunatic asylums for their incarceration. To
165
? ? ? ? I66 THE WILL TO POWER.
them on the stage in such a way, and oneself
with them is perhaps very smart; but to him who keeps his eyes open, even here, it remains, in spite
of all, the most ludicrous performance. A man by no means deserves privileges, either on earth or
in heaven, because he happens to have attained to perfection in the art of behaving like a good
natured little sheep; at best, he only remains a dear, absurd little ram with horns--provided, of
course, he does not burst with vanity or excite indignation by assuming the airs of a supreme
judge.
What a terrible glow of false colouring here
floods the meanest virtues--as though they were
the reflection of divine qualities !
The natural purpose and utility of every
virtue is systematically hushed up; it can only be valuable in the light of a divine command or model, or in the light of the good which belongs
to a beyond-or a spiritual world. (This is
magnificent! question
As if it were a of
the salvation of the soul: but it was a means of making things bearable here with as many beautiful sentiments as possible. )
2O4.
? The law, which is the fundamentally realistic formula of certain self-preservative measures of a community, forbids certain actions that have a definite tendency to jeopardise the welfare of that community: it does not forbid the attitude of mind
which gives rise to these actions--for in the pur
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION,
167
suit of other ends the community requires these forbidden actions, namely, when it is a matter of
opposing
its enemies. The moral idealist now
steps forward and says: "God sees into men's
hearts: the action itself counts for nothing; the
reprehensible attitude of mind from which it pro
ceeds must be extirpated. . . . " In normal
conditions men laugh at such things; it is only
in exceptional cases, when a community lives quite beyond the need of waging war in order to main
tain itself, that an ear is lent to such things. Any
attitude of mind is abandoned, the utility of which cannot be conceived.
This was the case, for example, when Buddha appeared among a people that was both peaceable
and afflicted with great intellectual weariness. This was also the case in regard to the first Christian community (as also the Jewish), the
primary condition of which was the absolutely unpolitical Jewish society. Christianity could grow
only upon the soil of Judaism--that is to say,
among a people that had already renounced the political life, and which led a sort of parasitic
existence within the Roman sphere of government, Christianity goes a step farther: it allows men to "emasculate" themselves even more ; the circum stances actually favour their doing so. --Nature is expelled from morality when it is said, "Love ye
your enemies": for Nature's injunction, "Ye shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy," has
now become senseless in the law (in instinct); now, even the love a man feels for his neighbour must first be based upon something (a sort of love
? ? ? ? I68 THE WILL TO POWER.
of God). God is introduced everywhere, and utility is withdrawn; the natural origin of morality
is denied everywhere: the veneration of Nature, which lies in acknowledging a natural morality, is
destroyed to the roots. . . .
Whence comes the seductive charm of this
emasculate ideal of man? Why are we not disgusted by just we are disgusted the thought eunuch The answer obvious: not the
voice the eunuch that revolts us, despite the cruel mutilation which the result; for, matter fact, has grown sweeter. And owing the very fact that the "male organ" has
been amputated from virtue, voice now has feminine ring, which, formerly, was not be
discerned.
On the other hand, we have only think the terrible hardness, dangers, and accidents
which life manly virtues leads--the life Corsican, even the present day, that
heathen Arab (which resembles the Corsican's life
even the smallest detail: the Arab's songs might
have been written by Corsicans)--in order
perceive how the most robust type man was
fascinated and moved by the voluptuous ring this "goodness" and "purity. " pastoral
melody an idyll the "good man": such
things have most effect ages when tragedy abroad.
With this, we have realised what extent the "idealist" (the ideal eunuch) also proceeds from
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CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I69
definite reality and is not merely a visionary. . . . He has perceived precisely that, for his kind of
reality, a brutal injunction of the sort which pro
hibits certain actions has no sense (because the
instinct which would urge him to these actions is weakened, thanks to a long need of practice, and
of compulsion to practise). The castrator formu
lates a host of new self-preservative measures for
a perfectly definite species of men: in this sense he is a realist. The means to which he has
recourse for establishing his legislation, are the
same as those of ancient legislators: he appeals to all authorities, to "God," and he exploits the notions "guilt and punishment"--that is to say, he avails himself of the whole of the older ideal, but interprets it differently; for instance: punish
ment is given a place in the inner self called the pang conscience).
practice this kind man meets with his end the moment the exceptional conditions favouring his existence cease prevail--a sort insular happiness, like that Tahiti, and the little Jews
the Roman provinces. Their only natural foe the soil from which they spring: they must wage war against that, and once more give their offensive
? and defensive passions rope order
it: their opponents are the adherents
equal
the old grand
relation Judaism, and by Luther
the priestly ascetic ideal). The this antagonism certainly that
the first Buddhists; perhaps nothing has given rise much work, the enfeeblement and
? ? to so
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? THE WILL TO POWER. discouragement of the feeling of antagonism. The
17o
struggle against
Buddhist's first duty; thus only is his peace of soul
resentment almost seems the
secured. To isolate oneself without
bitterness, this presupposes the existence of a surprisingly
mild and sweet order of men,--saints. . . . :k
The Astuteness of moral castration. --How is war waged against the virile passions and valuations? No violent physical means are available; the war must therefore be one of ruses, spells, and lies--in
-
short, a "spiritual war. "
First recipe: One appropriates virtue in general,
and makes it the main feature of one's ideal; the older ideal is denied and declared to be the reverse
of all ideals. Slander has to be carried to a fine art for this purpose.
Second recipe: One's own type is set up as a general standard; and this is projected into all
things, behind all things, and behind the destiny of all things--as God.
Third recipe: The opponents of one's ideal are declared to be the opponents of God; one arro gates to oneself a right to great pathos, to power,
and a right to curse and to bless.
Fourth recipe: All suffering, all gruesome,
terrible, and fatal things are declared to be the results of opposition to one's ideal--all suffering is
? punishment
(except it be a trial, etc. ).
even in the case of one's adherents
Fifth recipe: One goes so far as to regard Nature as the reverse of one's ideal, and the lengthy
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
171
sojourn
great trial of patience--a sort of martyrdom; one
studies contempt, both in one's attitudes and one's
looks towards all "natural things. "
Sixth recipe: The triumph of anti-naturalism
and ideal castration, the triumph of the world of the pure, good, sinless, and blessed, is projected
into the future as the consummation, the finale, the great hope, and the "Coming of the Kingdom of God. "
I hope that one may still be allowed to laugh at this artificial hoisting up of a small species of
man to the position of an absolute standard of all things?
2O5.
What I do not at all like in Jesus of Nazareth
and His Apostle Paul, is that they stuffed so much
into the heads of paltry people, as if their modest virtues were worth so much ado. We have had
to pay dearly for it all; for they brought the most
valuable qualities of both virtue and man into
repute; they set the guilty conscience and the self-respect noble souls loggerheads, and
they led the braver, more magnanimous, more daring,
and more excessive tendencies strong souls astray --even to self-destruction.
2O6.
the New Testament, and especially the Gospels, discern absolutely no sign Divine" voice: but rather an indirect form the most
amid natural conditions is considered a
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? 172
THE WILL TO POWER.
subterranean fury, both in slander and destructive ness--one of the most dishonest forms of hatred.
It lacks all knowledge of the qualities of a higher
nature. It makes an impudent abuse of all kinds of plausibilities, and the whole stock of proverbs is used up and foisted upon one in its pages. Was it necessary to make a God come in order to appeal to those publicans and to say to them, etc. etc. ?
Nothing could be more vulgar than this struggle
with the Pharisees, carried on with a host of absurd and unpractical moral pretences; the mob, of course,
has always been entertained by such feats. Fancy the reproach of "hypocrisy 1" coming from those
lips | Nothing could be more vulgar than this treatment of one's opponents--a most insidious sign of nobility or its reverse. . . .
207.
Primitive Christianity is the abolition of the State: it prohibits oaths, military service, courts of
justice, self-defence or the defence of a community, and denies the difference between fellow-country men and strangers, as also the order of castes.
? Christ's example : He does not withstand those
who ill-treat Him; He does not defend Himself;
He does more, He "offers the left cheek" (to the demand: "Tell us whether thou be the Christ? "
He replies: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven"). He forbids His disciples to defend Him; He calls attention to
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I73
the fact that He could get help if He wished to, but will not.
Christianity also means the abolition of society, it prizes everything that society despises, its very growth takes place among the outcasts, the con demned, and the leprous of all kinds, as also among "publicans," "sinners," prostitutes,
foolish of men (the "fisher folk"); it despises the rich, the scholarly, the noble, the virtuous, and the
"punctilious. "
. . .
2O8.
The war against the noble and the powerful, as it is waged in the New Testament, is reminis cent of Reynard the Fox and his methods: but
plus the priestly unction and the more absolute refusal to recognise one's own craftiness.
2O9.
The Gospel is the announcement that the road to happiness lies open for the lowly and the
poor--that all one has to do is to emancipate one's self from all institutions, traditions, and the
tutelage of the higher classes. Thus Christianity
is no more than the typical teaching of Socialists.
and the most
? Property, acquisitions, mother-country,
and rank, tribunals, the police, the State, the
Church, Education, Art, militarism: all these are
so many obstacles in the way of happiness, so many mistakes, snares, and devil's artifices, on
which the Gospel passes sentence--all this is typical of socialistic doctrines.
Behind all this there is the outburst, the ex
status
? ? ? I74
THE WILL TO POWER.
plosion, of a concentrated loathing of the "masters," -- the instinct which discerns the happiness of freedom after such long oppression. . . .
(Mostly a symptom of the fact that the inferior classes have been treated too humanely, that their tongues already taste a joy which is forbidden them. . . . It is not hunger that provokes revolu tions, but the fact that the mob have contracted an appetite en mangeant. . . . )
2 IO.
Let the New Testament only be read as a book of seduction: in it virtue is appropriated, with the idea that public opinion is best won with it,-- and as a matter of fact it is a very modest kind of virtue, which recognises only the ideal gregarious animal and nothing more (including, of course,
the herdsmen): a puny, soft, benevolent, helpful, and gushingly-satisfied kind of virtue which to the outside world is quite devoid of pretensions,-- and which separates the "world" entirely from itself. The crassest arrogance which fancies that the destiny of man turns around and alone,
? and that on the one side the
community
believers represents what right, and on the
other the world represents what false and eternally be reproved and rejected. The most
imbecile hatred all things power, which, how ever, never goes far touch these things.
kind inner detachment
leaves everything was (servitude and slavery; and knowing how convert everything into means serving God and virtue).
which, outwardly,
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CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
2 II.
I75
Christianity is possible as the most private
form of life; it presupposes the existence of a narrow, isolated, and absolutely unpolitical society
--it belongs to the conventicle. On the other
hand, a "Christian State," "Christian politics," are pieces of downright impudence; they are lies, like,
for instance, a Christian leadership of an army, which in the end regards "the God of hosts" as
chief of the staff. Even the Papacy has never been able to carry on politics in a Christian way . . . ; and when Reformers indulge in politics,
as Luther did, it is well known that they are just as ardent followers of Machiavelli as any other im tmoralists or tyrants.
2 I 2.
Christianity is still possible at any moment. It is not bound to any one of the impudent
whatever of metaphysics, and it needs asceticism and Christian "natural science" still less. Christi
anity is a method of life, not a system of belief. It tells us how we should behave, not what we should believe.
He who says to-day: "I refuse to be a soldier," "I care not for tribunals," "I lay no
claim to the services of the police," "I will not do anything that disturbs the peace within me:
? that have adorned themselves with its name: it needs neither the teaching of the personal God, nor of sin, nor of immortality, nor of redemption, nor of faith; it has absolutely no need
? ? ? 176
THE WILL TO POWER.
and if I must suffer on that account, nothing can
so well maintain my inward peace as suffering"-- such a man would be a Christian.
2 I 3.
Concerning the history of Christianity. --Con
tinual change of environment: Christian teaching is thus continually changing centre gravity. The favouring low and paltry people. The
development caritas. The type "Chris tian" gradually adopts everything that originally
rejected (and the rejection which asserted
? right citizen,
exist). The Christian becomes soldier, judge, workman, merchant,
theologian, priest, philosopher,
he re-enters all those departments of active
scholar,
farmer, artist, patriot, politician, prince
life which had forsworn (he defends
himself, he establishes tribunals, he punishes, he swears,
he differentiates between people and people, he contemns, and he shows anger). The whole life the Christian ultimately exactly that life from which Christ preached deliverance.
The Church just much factor the
triumph the Antichrist, and modern Nationalism.
the modern State The Church the
barbarisation
Christianity.
2I4.
Among the powers that have mastered Chris tianity are: Judaism (Paul); Platonism (Augustine);
The cult mystery (the teaching salvation,
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
177
the emblem of the "cross"); Asceticism (hostility towards "Nature," "Reason," the "senses,"--the
Orient . .
Christianity denaturalisation gregarious morality: under the power the most complete misapprehensions and self-deceptions. Demo cracy
more natural form and less sown with falsehood. fact that the oppressed, the low, and whole mob slaves and half-castes,
will prevail.
First step: they make themselves free--they detach themselves, first fancy only; they recognise each other; they make themselves paramount.
Second step: they enter the lists, they demand acknowledgment, equal rights, "Justice. "
Third step: they demand privileges (they draw the representatives power over their
side).
Fourth step: they alone want power, and
they have
There are three elements Christianity which
must distinguished: (a) the oppressed all
kinds, (b) the mediocre all kinds, (c) the dis satisfied and diseased all kinds. The first struggle against the politically noble and their
ideal; the second contend with the exceptions
? any way privileged (mentally
and those who are
physically); the third oppose the natural
instinct the happy and the sound.
Whenever triumph achieved, the second VOL. M
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be is of a
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? 178
THE WILL TO POWER.
element steps to the fore; for then Christianity
has won over the sound and happy to side (as warriors cause), likewise the powerful (inter
ested this extent the conquest the crowd) --and now the gregarious instinct, that
conscious itself (gains such courage regard own opinions), that arrogates
itself even political power.
Democracy
sort "return
owing extreme
been overcome by the opposite valuation. Result: the aristocratic ideal begins lose natural
mediocre nature which valuable
that now gets its highest sanction through Chris tianity. This mediocre nature ultimately becomes
Christianity
Nature," once Christianity,
every respect,
made natural
? anti-naturalness, might have
higher man," "noble," "artist," "passion," "knowledge"; Romanticism the cult
character ("the
the exceptional, genius, etc. etc. ).
2I
When the "masters" may also become Christians.
--It the nature
community (race, family,
herd, tribe) regard all those conditions and aspirations which favour its survival, them
selves valuable; for instance: obedience, mutual assistance, respect, moderation, pity--as also, suppress everything that happens stand the way
the above.
likewise of the nature of the rulers
(whether they are individuals classes) patronise and applaud those virtues which make
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I79
their subjects amenable and submissive--(condi tions and passions which may be utterly different from their own).
The gregarious instinct and the inst-inct of the rulers sometimes agree in approving of a certain
number of qualities and conditions,
different reasons: the first do so out of direct
egoism, the second out of indirect egoism.
The submission to Christianity on the part of
master races is essentially the result of the con viction that Christianity is a religion for the herd,
that it teaches obedience: in short, that Christians
are more easily ruled than non-Christians. With a hint of this nature, the Pope, even nowadays,
recommends Christian propaganda to the ruling
Sovereign
It should also be added that the seductive
power of the Christian ideal works most strongly upon natures that love danger, adventure, and contrasts; that love everything that entails a risk,
and wherewith a non plus ultra of powerful feeling may be attained. In this respect, one has only to think of Saint Theresa, surrounded by the
the will, as strength of will, as a sort of Quixotic heroism.
3. CHRISTIAN IDEALS.
217.
War against the Christian deal, against the doctrine of "blessedness" and "salvation" as the
of China.
heroic instincts of her
appears in those circumstances as a dissipation of
brothers:--Christianity
but for
? ? ? ? *
18O THE WILL TO POWER.
aims of life, against the supremacy of the fools, of the pure in heart, of the suffering and of the botched !
When and where has any man, of any note at all,
resembled the Christian ideal P--at least in the eyes
of those who are psychologists and triers of the heart and reins. Look at all Plutarch's heroes !
2 I 8.
Our claim to superiority: we live in an age of
Comparisons;
have never yet calculated; in every way we are
we are able to calculate as men
? history become self-conscious. We enjoy things in a different way; we suffer in a different way: our instinctive activity is the comparison of an enormous variety of things. We understand everything; we experience everything, we no
longer have a hostile feeling left within us. How
ever disastrous the results may be to ourselves, our plunging and almost lustful inquisitiveness, attacks,
unabashed, the most dangerous of subjects. . . .
"Everything is good"--it gives us pain to say
"nay" to anything. We suffer when we feel that
we are sufficiently foolish to make a definite stand against anything. . . . At bottom, it is we
scholars who to-day are fulfilling Christ's teaching most thoroughly.
2 I9.
We cannot suppress a certain irony when we contemplate those who think they have overcome Christianity by means of modern natural science. Christian values are by* no means overcome by
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION. I81
such people. "Christ on the cross" is still the most sublime symbol--even now
22O.
The two great Nihilistic movements are: (a) Buddhism, (b) Christianity. The latter has only
just about reached a state of culture in which it can fulfil its original object,--it has found its
level,--and disguise. . . .
now it can manifest itself without
22 I.
? We have re-established the Christian ideal, it now only remains to determine its value.
(1) Which values does it deny? What does the ideal that opposes it stand for? --Pride, pathos of distance, great responsibility, exuberant spirits, splendid animalism,
conquest, the deification of passion, revenge, cunning, anger, voluptuousness, adventure, know
ledge;--the noble ideal is denied: the beauty, wisdom, power, pomp, and awfulness of the type
man: the man who postulates aims, the "future" man (here Christianity presents itself as the
climatic conditions are favourable--as in the case of the Indian ideal. Both neglect the factor work. --It separates a creature from a people, a state, a civilised community, and jurisdiction; it rejects
education, wisdom, the cultivation of good man ners, acquisition and commerce; it cuts adrift
logical
the instincts of war and of
result of Judaism).
(2) Can it be realised ? -Yes, of course, when the
? ? ? I82 THE WILL TO POWER.
everything which is of use and value to men--by means of an idiosyncrasy of sentiment it isolates a man. It is non-political, anti-national, neither
aggressive nor defensive, -- and only possible within a strictly-ordered State or state of society,
which allows these holy parasites to flourish at the cost of their neighbours.
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I59
Christianity that does none the things that Christ commanded.
contempt.
mean life, but seen through the eye
I94.
The entrance into the real life--a man saves his own life living the life the multitude.
95.
Christianity has become something fundament
ally different from what its Founder wished
be. the great anti-pagan movement anti
quity, formulated with the use the life, teaching,
and "words" the Founder Christianity, but
? interpreted quite arbitrarily, according
scheme
embodying profoundly different needs: translated
into the language all the subterranean religions then existing.
the rise Pessimism (whereas Jesus wished bring the peace and the happiness
the lambs): and moreover the Pessimism the weak, the inferior, the suffering, and the
oppressed.
Its mortal enemies are (1) Power, whether the form character, intellect, taste, and
"worldliness"; (2) the "good cheer" classical times, the noble levity and scepticism, hard pride,
eccentric dissipation, and cold frugality the sage,
Greek refinement manners, words, and form.
Its mortal enemy much the Roman the Greek.
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? 16O THE WILL TO POWER.
The attempt on the part of anti-paganism to
establish itself on a philosophical basis, and to
make tenets possible: shows taste for the ambiguous figures antique culture, and above
all for Plato, who was, more than any other, an
anti-Hellene and Semite instinct. shows taste for Stoicism, which
also essentially
("dignity"
severity, law; virtue held be greatness, self
the work Semites
regarded
responsibility, authority, greatest sovereignty oneself--this Semitic. The Stoic an Arabian
over sheik wrapped Greek togas and notions.
? 196.
Christianity only resumes the fight which had
already been begun against the classical ideal and noble religion.
As matter fact, the whole process
transformation only an adaptation
needs and
masses then
believed
"great mother," and which demanded the follow
ing things religion: (1) hopes beyond,
(2) the bloody phantasmagoria animal sacrifice (the mystery), (3) holy legend and the redeeming
the
community.
increasing anti-pagan tendency--those
Epicurus combated,-- more exactly, those
intelligence
the religious
the level
existing:--those masses
which Isis, Mithras, Dionysos, and the
the world, super hierarchy part
short, Christianity everywhere fitted the already prevailing and
deed, (4) asceticism, denial stitious "purification," (5)
cults which
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION. * I6I
religions proper to the lower herd, women, slaves,
and ignoble classes.
The misunderstandings are therefore the
following:--
(1) The immortality of the individual;
(2) The assumed existence of another world;
(3) The absurd notion of punishment and expiation in the heart of the interpretation of existence;
(4) The profanation of the divine nature of
man, instead of its accentuation, and the con
struction of a very profound chasm, which can
only be crossed by the help of a miracle or by means of the most thorough self-contempt;
(5) The whole world of corrupted imagination
and morbid passion, instead of a simple and
loving life of action, instead of Buddhistic happiness attainable on earth;
? priesthood, theology, cults, and sacraments; in short, every
(6) An ecclesiastical order with a
thing that Jesus of Nazareth combated;
(7) The miraculous in everything and every body, superstition too: while precisely the trait
which distinguished Judaism and primitive Christianity was their repugnance to miracles and their relative rationalism.
I97.
The psychological pre-requisites:--Ignorance and lack of culture,--the sort of ignorance which has un
learned every kind of shame: let any one imagine
those impudent saints in the heart of Athens; VOL. I. L
? ? ? I62 THE WILL TO POWER.
The Jewish instinct of a chosen people: they appropriate all the virtues, without further ado,
as their own, and regard the rest of the world as their opposite; this is a profound sign of spiritual depravity;
The total lack of real aims and real duties, for which other virtues are required than those of the
State undertook this work for them: and the impudent people still behaved as though they had no need of the State. "Except ye become as little children"--oh, how far we are from this psychological ingenuousness!
I98.
The Founder of Christianity had to pay dearly
for having directed His teaching at the lowest classes of Jewish society and intelligence. They
understood Him only according to the limitations of their own spirit. . . . It was a disgrace to concoct a history of salvation, a personal God, a personal Saviour, a personal immortality, and to have
retained all the meanness of the "person," and of the "history" of a doctrine which denies the reality of all that is personal and historical.
The legend of salvation takes the place of the symbolic "now" and "all time," of the symbolic
"here" and "everywhere"; and miracles appear instead of the psychological symbol.
I 99.
Nothing is less innocent than the New Testa ment. The soil from which it sprang is known.
bigot--the
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
163
These people, possessed of an inflexible will to assert themselves, and who, once they had lost
natural hold on life, and had long existed without any right existence, still knew how
prevail by means hypotheses which were unnatural they were imaginary (calling them
selves the chosen people, the community saints, the people the promised land, and the
"Church"): these people made use their pia fraus with such skill, and with such "clean
consciences,"
when they preach morality. When Jews step forward the personification innocence, the danger must great. While reading the New Testament man should have his small fund of intelligence, mistrust, and wickedness constantly at hand.
People the lowest origin, partly mob, out casts not only from good society, but also from
that one cannot be too cautious
? respectable society; grown away
atmosphere culture, and free from discipline; ignorant, without even suspicion the fact that
spiritual matters; word--the Jews: an instinctively crafty people,
able create an advantage, means seduction out every conceivable hypothesis superstition,
even out ignorance itself.
2OO.
conscience can also rule
regard Christianity
seductive lie that has ever yet existed--as the greatest and most impious lie: can discern the
the most fatal and
from the
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? 164
THE WILL TO POWER.
last sprouts and branches of its ideal beneath every form of disguise, I decline to enter into any compromise or false position in reference to it-- I urge people to declare open war with
The morality paltry people the measure all things: this the most repugnant kind
degeneracy that civilisation has ever yet brought
However modest one's demands may be concerning intellectual cleanliness, when one
into existence. And this kind ideal
still, under the name "God," over men's heads
2O I.
help experiencing sort inexpressible feeling dis
touches the New Testament one cannot
comfort;
the least qualified people will have their say
its pages, regard the greatest problems
existence, and claim sit judgment on
such matters, exceeds limits. The impudent levity with which the most unwieldy problems
are spoken here (life, the world, God, the purpose life), they were not problems
all, but the most simple things which these little bigots know all about ! ! !
2O2.
This was the most fatal form insanity that has ever yet existed on earth:--when these little lying abortions bigotry begin laying claim
the words "God," "last judgment," "truth,"
for the unbounded cheek with which
hanging
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
"love,33 go wisdom," "Holy Spirit," and thereby
the salt, the standard, and the measure of all
persecute them was an egregious act of antique folly: this was taking them too seriously; it was
making them serious.
The whole fatality was made possible by the
fact that a similar form of megalomania was
already in existence, the Jewish form (once the
gulf separating the Jews from the Christian-Jews
was bridged, the Christian-Jews were compelled to employ those self-preservative measures afresh
which were discovered by the Jewish instinct, for their own self-preservation, after having accent
uated them); and again through the fact that Greek moral philosophy had done everything
that could be done to prepare the way for moral-fanaticism, even among Greeks and Romans,
and to render it palatable. . . . Plato, the great importer of corruption, who was the first
who refused to see Nature in morality, and who had already deprived the Greek gods of all their worth by his notion "good," was already tainted with Jewish bigotry (in Egypt? ).
2O3.
These small virtues of gregarious animals do not by any means lead to "eternal life": to put
distinguishing
themselves from the rest of the world; when such men begin to transvalue values to suit themselves, as though they were the sense,
things;
then all that one should do is this: build lunatic asylums for their incarceration. To
165
? ? ? ? I66 THE WILL TO POWER.
them on the stage in such a way, and oneself
with them is perhaps very smart; but to him who keeps his eyes open, even here, it remains, in spite
of all, the most ludicrous performance. A man by no means deserves privileges, either on earth or
in heaven, because he happens to have attained to perfection in the art of behaving like a good
natured little sheep; at best, he only remains a dear, absurd little ram with horns--provided, of
course, he does not burst with vanity or excite indignation by assuming the airs of a supreme
judge.
What a terrible glow of false colouring here
floods the meanest virtues--as though they were
the reflection of divine qualities !
The natural purpose and utility of every
virtue is systematically hushed up; it can only be valuable in the light of a divine command or model, or in the light of the good which belongs
to a beyond-or a spiritual world. (This is
magnificent! question
As if it were a of
the salvation of the soul: but it was a means of making things bearable here with as many beautiful sentiments as possible. )
2O4.
? The law, which is the fundamentally realistic formula of certain self-preservative measures of a community, forbids certain actions that have a definite tendency to jeopardise the welfare of that community: it does not forbid the attitude of mind
which gives rise to these actions--for in the pur
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION,
167
suit of other ends the community requires these forbidden actions, namely, when it is a matter of
opposing
its enemies. The moral idealist now
steps forward and says: "God sees into men's
hearts: the action itself counts for nothing; the
reprehensible attitude of mind from which it pro
ceeds must be extirpated. . . . " In normal
conditions men laugh at such things; it is only
in exceptional cases, when a community lives quite beyond the need of waging war in order to main
tain itself, that an ear is lent to such things. Any
attitude of mind is abandoned, the utility of which cannot be conceived.
This was the case, for example, when Buddha appeared among a people that was both peaceable
and afflicted with great intellectual weariness. This was also the case in regard to the first Christian community (as also the Jewish), the
primary condition of which was the absolutely unpolitical Jewish society. Christianity could grow
only upon the soil of Judaism--that is to say,
among a people that had already renounced the political life, and which led a sort of parasitic
existence within the Roman sphere of government, Christianity goes a step farther: it allows men to "emasculate" themselves even more ; the circum stances actually favour their doing so. --Nature is expelled from morality when it is said, "Love ye
your enemies": for Nature's injunction, "Ye shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy," has
now become senseless in the law (in instinct); now, even the love a man feels for his neighbour must first be based upon something (a sort of love
? ? ? ? I68 THE WILL TO POWER.
of God). God is introduced everywhere, and utility is withdrawn; the natural origin of morality
is denied everywhere: the veneration of Nature, which lies in acknowledging a natural morality, is
destroyed to the roots. . . .
Whence comes the seductive charm of this
emasculate ideal of man? Why are we not disgusted by just we are disgusted the thought eunuch The answer obvious: not the
voice the eunuch that revolts us, despite the cruel mutilation which the result; for, matter fact, has grown sweeter. And owing the very fact that the "male organ" has
been amputated from virtue, voice now has feminine ring, which, formerly, was not be
discerned.
On the other hand, we have only think the terrible hardness, dangers, and accidents
which life manly virtues leads--the life Corsican, even the present day, that
heathen Arab (which resembles the Corsican's life
even the smallest detail: the Arab's songs might
have been written by Corsicans)--in order
perceive how the most robust type man was
fascinated and moved by the voluptuous ring this "goodness" and "purity. " pastoral
melody an idyll the "good man": such
things have most effect ages when tragedy abroad.
With this, we have realised what extent the "idealist" (the ideal eunuch) also proceeds from
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relation mildest form
hostility shown on
CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I69
definite reality and is not merely a visionary. . . . He has perceived precisely that, for his kind of
reality, a brutal injunction of the sort which pro
hibits certain actions has no sense (because the
instinct which would urge him to these actions is weakened, thanks to a long need of practice, and
of compulsion to practise). The castrator formu
lates a host of new self-preservative measures for
a perfectly definite species of men: in this sense he is a realist. The means to which he has
recourse for establishing his legislation, are the
same as those of ancient legislators: he appeals to all authorities, to "God," and he exploits the notions "guilt and punishment"--that is to say, he avails himself of the whole of the older ideal, but interprets it differently; for instance: punish
ment is given a place in the inner self called the pang conscience).
practice this kind man meets with his end the moment the exceptional conditions favouring his existence cease prevail--a sort insular happiness, like that Tahiti, and the little Jews
the Roman provinces. Their only natural foe the soil from which they spring: they must wage war against that, and once more give their offensive
? and defensive passions rope order
it: their opponents are the adherents
equal
the old grand
relation Judaism, and by Luther
the priestly ascetic ideal). The this antagonism certainly that
the first Buddhists; perhaps nothing has given rise much work, the enfeeblement and
? ? to so
In of
as
to
of
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? THE WILL TO POWER. discouragement of the feeling of antagonism. The
17o
struggle against
Buddhist's first duty; thus only is his peace of soul
resentment almost seems the
secured. To isolate oneself without
bitterness, this presupposes the existence of a surprisingly
mild and sweet order of men,--saints. . . . :k
The Astuteness of moral castration. --How is war waged against the virile passions and valuations? No violent physical means are available; the war must therefore be one of ruses, spells, and lies--in
-
short, a "spiritual war. "
First recipe: One appropriates virtue in general,
and makes it the main feature of one's ideal; the older ideal is denied and declared to be the reverse
of all ideals. Slander has to be carried to a fine art for this purpose.
Second recipe: One's own type is set up as a general standard; and this is projected into all
things, behind all things, and behind the destiny of all things--as God.
Third recipe: The opponents of one's ideal are declared to be the opponents of God; one arro gates to oneself a right to great pathos, to power,
and a right to curse and to bless.
Fourth recipe: All suffering, all gruesome,
terrible, and fatal things are declared to be the results of opposition to one's ideal--all suffering is
? punishment
(except it be a trial, etc. ).
even in the case of one's adherents
Fifth recipe: One goes so far as to regard Nature as the reverse of one's ideal, and the lengthy
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
171
sojourn
great trial of patience--a sort of martyrdom; one
studies contempt, both in one's attitudes and one's
looks towards all "natural things. "
Sixth recipe: The triumph of anti-naturalism
and ideal castration, the triumph of the world of the pure, good, sinless, and blessed, is projected
into the future as the consummation, the finale, the great hope, and the "Coming of the Kingdom of God. "
I hope that one may still be allowed to laugh at this artificial hoisting up of a small species of
man to the position of an absolute standard of all things?
2O5.
What I do not at all like in Jesus of Nazareth
and His Apostle Paul, is that they stuffed so much
into the heads of paltry people, as if their modest virtues were worth so much ado. We have had
to pay dearly for it all; for they brought the most
valuable qualities of both virtue and man into
repute; they set the guilty conscience and the self-respect noble souls loggerheads, and
they led the braver, more magnanimous, more daring,
and more excessive tendencies strong souls astray --even to self-destruction.
2O6.
the New Testament, and especially the Gospels, discern absolutely no sign Divine" voice: but rather an indirect form the most
amid natural conditions is considered a
? ? ? of o f a"
In I
in
of
at
of
ill
? 172
THE WILL TO POWER.
subterranean fury, both in slander and destructive ness--one of the most dishonest forms of hatred.
It lacks all knowledge of the qualities of a higher
nature. It makes an impudent abuse of all kinds of plausibilities, and the whole stock of proverbs is used up and foisted upon one in its pages. Was it necessary to make a God come in order to appeal to those publicans and to say to them, etc. etc. ?
Nothing could be more vulgar than this struggle
with the Pharisees, carried on with a host of absurd and unpractical moral pretences; the mob, of course,
has always been entertained by such feats. Fancy the reproach of "hypocrisy 1" coming from those
lips | Nothing could be more vulgar than this treatment of one's opponents--a most insidious sign of nobility or its reverse. . . .
207.
Primitive Christianity is the abolition of the State: it prohibits oaths, military service, courts of
justice, self-defence or the defence of a community, and denies the difference between fellow-country men and strangers, as also the order of castes.
? Christ's example : He does not withstand those
who ill-treat Him; He does not defend Himself;
He does more, He "offers the left cheek" (to the demand: "Tell us whether thou be the Christ? "
He replies: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven"). He forbids His disciples to defend Him; He calls attention to
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I73
the fact that He could get help if He wished to, but will not.
Christianity also means the abolition of society, it prizes everything that society despises, its very growth takes place among the outcasts, the con demned, and the leprous of all kinds, as also among "publicans," "sinners," prostitutes,
foolish of men (the "fisher folk"); it despises the rich, the scholarly, the noble, the virtuous, and the
"punctilious. "
. . .
2O8.
The war against the noble and the powerful, as it is waged in the New Testament, is reminis cent of Reynard the Fox and his methods: but
plus the priestly unction and the more absolute refusal to recognise one's own craftiness.
2O9.
The Gospel is the announcement that the road to happiness lies open for the lowly and the
poor--that all one has to do is to emancipate one's self from all institutions, traditions, and the
tutelage of the higher classes. Thus Christianity
is no more than the typical teaching of Socialists.
and the most
? Property, acquisitions, mother-country,
and rank, tribunals, the police, the State, the
Church, Education, Art, militarism: all these are
so many obstacles in the way of happiness, so many mistakes, snares, and devil's artifices, on
which the Gospel passes sentence--all this is typical of socialistic doctrines.
Behind all this there is the outburst, the ex
status
? ? ? I74
THE WILL TO POWER.
plosion, of a concentrated loathing of the "masters," -- the instinct which discerns the happiness of freedom after such long oppression. . . .
(Mostly a symptom of the fact that the inferior classes have been treated too humanely, that their tongues already taste a joy which is forbidden them. . . . It is not hunger that provokes revolu tions, but the fact that the mob have contracted an appetite en mangeant. . . . )
2 IO.
Let the New Testament only be read as a book of seduction: in it virtue is appropriated, with the idea that public opinion is best won with it,-- and as a matter of fact it is a very modest kind of virtue, which recognises only the ideal gregarious animal and nothing more (including, of course,
the herdsmen): a puny, soft, benevolent, helpful, and gushingly-satisfied kind of virtue which to the outside world is quite devoid of pretensions,-- and which separates the "world" entirely from itself. The crassest arrogance which fancies that the destiny of man turns around and alone,
? and that on the one side the
community
believers represents what right, and on the
other the world represents what false and eternally be reproved and rejected. The most
imbecile hatred all things power, which, how ever, never goes far touch these things.
kind inner detachment
leaves everything was (servitude and slavery; and knowing how convert everything into means serving God and virtue).
which, outwardly,
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CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
2 II.
I75
Christianity is possible as the most private
form of life; it presupposes the existence of a narrow, isolated, and absolutely unpolitical society
--it belongs to the conventicle. On the other
hand, a "Christian State," "Christian politics," are pieces of downright impudence; they are lies, like,
for instance, a Christian leadership of an army, which in the end regards "the God of hosts" as
chief of the staff. Even the Papacy has never been able to carry on politics in a Christian way . . . ; and when Reformers indulge in politics,
as Luther did, it is well known that they are just as ardent followers of Machiavelli as any other im tmoralists or tyrants.
2 I 2.
Christianity is still possible at any moment. It is not bound to any one of the impudent
whatever of metaphysics, and it needs asceticism and Christian "natural science" still less. Christi
anity is a method of life, not a system of belief. It tells us how we should behave, not what we should believe.
He who says to-day: "I refuse to be a soldier," "I care not for tribunals," "I lay no
claim to the services of the police," "I will not do anything that disturbs the peace within me:
? that have adorned themselves with its name: it needs neither the teaching of the personal God, nor of sin, nor of immortality, nor of redemption, nor of faith; it has absolutely no need
? ? ? 176
THE WILL TO POWER.
and if I must suffer on that account, nothing can
so well maintain my inward peace as suffering"-- such a man would be a Christian.
2 I 3.
Concerning the history of Christianity. --Con
tinual change of environment: Christian teaching is thus continually changing centre gravity. The favouring low and paltry people. The
development caritas. The type "Chris tian" gradually adopts everything that originally
rejected (and the rejection which asserted
? right citizen,
exist). The Christian becomes soldier, judge, workman, merchant,
theologian, priest, philosopher,
he re-enters all those departments of active
scholar,
farmer, artist, patriot, politician, prince
life which had forsworn (he defends
himself, he establishes tribunals, he punishes, he swears,
he differentiates between people and people, he contemns, and he shows anger). The whole life the Christian ultimately exactly that life from which Christ preached deliverance.
The Church just much factor the
triumph the Antichrist, and modern Nationalism.
the modern State The Church the
barbarisation
Christianity.
2I4.
Among the powers that have mastered Chris tianity are: Judaism (Paul); Platonism (Augustine);
The cult mystery (the teaching salvation,
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
177
the emblem of the "cross"); Asceticism (hostility towards "Nature," "Reason," the "senses,"--the
Orient . .
Christianity denaturalisation gregarious morality: under the power the most complete misapprehensions and self-deceptions. Demo cracy
more natural form and less sown with falsehood. fact that the oppressed, the low, and whole mob slaves and half-castes,
will prevail.
First step: they make themselves free--they detach themselves, first fancy only; they recognise each other; they make themselves paramount.
Second step: they enter the lists, they demand acknowledgment, equal rights, "Justice. "
Third step: they demand privileges (they draw the representatives power over their
side).
Fourth step: they alone want power, and
they have
There are three elements Christianity which
must distinguished: (a) the oppressed all
kinds, (b) the mediocre all kinds, (c) the dis satisfied and diseased all kinds. The first struggle against the politically noble and their
ideal; the second contend with the exceptions
? any way privileged (mentally
and those who are
physically); the third oppose the natural
instinct the happy and the sound.
Whenever triumph achieved, the second VOL. M
? ? I.
be is of a
a
in
It is
is a
is
of of
of a
2I5.
or
it.
. ).
of
in in of
to of
all
of it,
at
of
? 178
THE WILL TO POWER.
element steps to the fore; for then Christianity
has won over the sound and happy to side (as warriors cause), likewise the powerful (inter
ested this extent the conquest the crowd) --and now the gregarious instinct, that
conscious itself (gains such courage regard own opinions), that arrogates
itself even political power.
Democracy
sort "return
owing extreme
been overcome by the opposite valuation. Result: the aristocratic ideal begins lose natural
mediocre nature which valuable
that now gets its highest sanction through Chris tianity. This mediocre nature ultimately becomes
Christianity
Nature," once Christianity,
every respect,
made natural
? anti-naturalness, might have
higher man," "noble," "artist," "passion," "knowledge"; Romanticism the cult
character ("the
the exceptional, genius, etc. etc. ).
2I
When the "masters" may also become Christians.
--It the nature
community (race, family,
herd, tribe) regard all those conditions and aspirations which favour its survival, them
selves valuable; for instance: obedience, mutual assistance, respect, moderation, pity--as also, suppress everything that happens stand the way
the above.
likewise of the nature of the rulers
(whether they are individuals classes) patronise and applaud those virtues which make
? ? It
is of
is of
to of
to
to
or
in
as in
as
its
its
to
to
:
a toin
to
it
in
of
to
its
it
in its
of a
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6.
. . .
of
so
to
of to
is
is
in
? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I79
their subjects amenable and submissive--(condi tions and passions which may be utterly different from their own).
The gregarious instinct and the inst-inct of the rulers sometimes agree in approving of a certain
number of qualities and conditions,
different reasons: the first do so out of direct
egoism, the second out of indirect egoism.
The submission to Christianity on the part of
master races is essentially the result of the con viction that Christianity is a religion for the herd,
that it teaches obedience: in short, that Christians
are more easily ruled than non-Christians. With a hint of this nature, the Pope, even nowadays,
recommends Christian propaganda to the ruling
Sovereign
It should also be added that the seductive
power of the Christian ideal works most strongly upon natures that love danger, adventure, and contrasts; that love everything that entails a risk,
and wherewith a non plus ultra of powerful feeling may be attained. In this respect, one has only to think of Saint Theresa, surrounded by the
the will, as strength of will, as a sort of Quixotic heroism.
3. CHRISTIAN IDEALS.
217.
War against the Christian deal, against the doctrine of "blessedness" and "salvation" as the
of China.
heroic instincts of her
appears in those circumstances as a dissipation of
brothers:--Christianity
but for
? ? ? ? *
18O THE WILL TO POWER.
aims of life, against the supremacy of the fools, of the pure in heart, of the suffering and of the botched !
When and where has any man, of any note at all,
resembled the Christian ideal P--at least in the eyes
of those who are psychologists and triers of the heart and reins. Look at all Plutarch's heroes !
2 I 8.
Our claim to superiority: we live in an age of
Comparisons;
have never yet calculated; in every way we are
we are able to calculate as men
? history become self-conscious. We enjoy things in a different way; we suffer in a different way: our instinctive activity is the comparison of an enormous variety of things. We understand everything; we experience everything, we no
longer have a hostile feeling left within us. How
ever disastrous the results may be to ourselves, our plunging and almost lustful inquisitiveness, attacks,
unabashed, the most dangerous of subjects. . . .
"Everything is good"--it gives us pain to say
"nay" to anything. We suffer when we feel that
we are sufficiently foolish to make a definite stand against anything. . . . At bottom, it is we
scholars who to-day are fulfilling Christ's teaching most thoroughly.
2 I9.
We cannot suppress a certain irony when we contemplate those who think they have overcome Christianity by means of modern natural science. Christian values are by* no means overcome by
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION. I81
such people. "Christ on the cross" is still the most sublime symbol--even now
22O.
The two great Nihilistic movements are: (a) Buddhism, (b) Christianity. The latter has only
just about reached a state of culture in which it can fulfil its original object,--it has found its
level,--and disguise. . . .
now it can manifest itself without
22 I.
? We have re-established the Christian ideal, it now only remains to determine its value.
(1) Which values does it deny? What does the ideal that opposes it stand for? --Pride, pathos of distance, great responsibility, exuberant spirits, splendid animalism,
conquest, the deification of passion, revenge, cunning, anger, voluptuousness, adventure, know
ledge;--the noble ideal is denied: the beauty, wisdom, power, pomp, and awfulness of the type
man: the man who postulates aims, the "future" man (here Christianity presents itself as the
climatic conditions are favourable--as in the case of the Indian ideal. Both neglect the factor work. --It separates a creature from a people, a state, a civilised community, and jurisdiction; it rejects
education, wisdom, the cultivation of good man ners, acquisition and commerce; it cuts adrift
logical
the instincts of war and of
result of Judaism).
(2) Can it be realised ? -Yes, of course, when the
? ? ? I82 THE WILL TO POWER.
everything which is of use and value to men--by means of an idiosyncrasy of sentiment it isolates a man. It is non-political, anti-national, neither
aggressive nor defensive, -- and only possible within a strictly-ordered State or state of society,
which allows these holy parasites to flourish at the cost of their neighbours.
