The Antichrist

191 Pages·2013·0.4 MB·English

The Antichrist
byF.W.Nietzsche
StyledbyLimpidSoft
Contents
INTRODUCTION 4 9 . . . . . . . . . . 48
10 . . . . . . . . . 50
PREFACE 32 11 . . . . . . . . . 52
12 . . . . . . . . . 54
THEANTICHRIST 34 13 . . . . . . . . . 56
1 . . . . . . . . . . 35 14 . . . . . . . . . 58
2 . . . . . . . . . . 37 15 . . . . . . . . . 60
3 . . . . . . . . . . 38 16 . . . . . . . . . 62
4 . . . . . . . . . . 39 17 . . . . . . . . . 64
5 . . . . . . . . . . 40 18 . . . . . . . . . 67
6 . . . . . . . . . . 41 19 . . . . . . . . . 68
7 . . . . . . . . . . 43 20 . . . . . . . . . 69
8 . . . . . . . . . . 46 21 . . . . . . . . . 72
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CONTENTS
22 . . . . . . . . . 74 43 . . . . . . . . . 127
23 . . . . . . . . . 76 44 . . . . . . . . . 130
24 . . . . . . . . . 79 45 . . . . . . . . . 134
25 . . . . . . . . . 82 46 . . . . . . . . . 139
26 . . . . . . . . . 85 47 . . . . . . . . . 142
27 . . . . . . . . . 89 48 . . . . . . . . . 144
28 . . . . . . . . . 92
49 . . . . . . . . . 147
29 . . . . . . . . . 94
50 . . . . . . . . . 149
30 . . . . . . . . . 96
51 . . . . . . . . . 151
31 . . . . . . . . . 98
52 . . . . . . . . . 155
32 . . . . . . . . . 101
53 . . . . . . . . . 158
33 . . . . . . . . . 105
54 . . . . . . . . . 161
34 . . . . . . . . . 107
55 . . . . . . . . . 164
35 . . . . . . . . . 109
56 . . . . . . . . . 168
36 . . . . . . . . . 110
37 . . . . . . . . . 111 57 . . . . . . . . . 170
38 . . . . . . . . . 113 58 . . . . . . . . . 177
39 . . . . . . . . . 116 59 . . . . . . . . . 181
40 . . . . . . . . . 119 60 . . . . . . . . . 184
41 . . . . . . . . . 122 61 . . . . . . . . . 186
42 . . . . . . . . . 124 62 . . . . . . . . . 189
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INTRODUCTION
SAVEforhisraucous,rhapsodicalautobiography,“Ecce
Homo,” “The Antichrist” is the last thing that Niet-
zsche ever wrote, and so it may be accepted as a state-
mentofsomeofhismostsalientideasintheirfinalform.
Notesforithadbeenaccumulatingforyearsanditwas
tohaveconstitutedthefirstvolumeofhislong-projected
magnumopus,“TheWilltoPower.” Hisfullplanforthis
work,asoriginallydrawnup,wasasfollows:
Vol. I. The Antichrist: an Attempt at a Criticism of
Christianity.
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INTRODUCTION
Vol. II. The Free Spirit: a Criticism of Philosophy as a
NihilisticMovement.
Vol. III. The Immoralist: a Criticism of Morality, the
MostFatalFormofIgnorance.
Vol. IV. Dionysus: the Philosophy of Eternal Recur-
rence.
Thefirstsketchesfor“TheWilltoPower”weremade
in1884,soonafterthepublicationofthefirstthreeparts
of “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” and thereafter, for four
years,Nietzschepiledupnotes. Theywerewrittenatall
the places he visited on his endless travels in search of
health–at Nice, at Venice, at Sils-Maria in the Engadine
(for long his favourite resort), at Cannobio, at Zürich,
at Genoa, at Chur, at Leipzig. Several times his work
was interrupted by other books, first by “Beyond Good
and Evil,” then by “The Genealogy of Morals” (written
intwentydays),thenbyhisWagnerpamphlets. Almost
asoftenhechangedhisplan. Oncehedecidedtoexpand
“TheWilltoPower”totenvolumes,with“AnAttemptat
aNewInterpretationoftheWorld”asageneralsub-title.
Again he adopted the sub-title of “An Interpretation of
AllThatHappens.”Finally,hehitupon“AnAttemptata
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INTRODUCTION
TransvaluationofAllValues,”andwentbacktofourvol-
umes,thoughwithanumberofchangesintheirarrange-
ment.InSeptember,1888,hebeganactualworkuponthe
firstvolume,andbeforetheendofthemonthitwascom-
pleted. The Summer had been one of almost hysterical
creativeactivity. SincethemiddleofJunehehadwritten
twoothersmallbooks, “TheCaseofWagner”and“The
TwilightoftheIdols,” andbeforetheendoftheyearhe
was destined to write “Ecce Homo.” Some time during
Decemberhishealthbegantofailrapidly,andsoonafter
the New Year he was helpless. Thereafter he wrote no
more.
The Wagner diatribe and “The Twilight of the Idols”
were published immediately, but “The Antichrist” did
not get into type until 1895. I suspect that the delay
wasduetotheinfluenceofthephilosopher’ssister,Elis-
abethFörster-Nietzsche,anintelligentandardentbutby
nomeansuniformlyjudiciouspropagandistofhisideas.
During his dark days of neglect and misunderstanding,
when even family and friends kept aloof, Frau Förster-
Nietzschewentwithhimfartherthananyother,butthere
wereboundsbeyondwhichshe,also,hesitatedtogo,and
thoseboundsweremarkedbycrosses. Onenotes,inher
biographyofhim–ausefulbutnotalwaysaccuratework–
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INTRODUCTION
anevidentdesiretopurgehimoftheaccusationofmock-
ingatsacredthings. Hehad, shesays, greatadmiration
for”theelevatingeffectofChristianity... upontheweak
and ailing,” and ”a real liking for sincere, pious Chris-
tians,” and ”a tender love for the Founder of Christian-
ity.” All his wrath, she continues, was reserved for “St.
Paulandhislike,” whopervertedtheBeatitudes, which
Christ intended for the lowly only, into a universal re-
ligion which made war upon aristocratic values. Here,
obviously, one is addressed by an interpreter who can-
not forget that she is the daughter of a Lutheran pastor
and the grand-daughter of two others; a touch of con-
science gets into her reading of “The Antichrist.” She
evenhintsthatthetextmayhavebeengarbled,afterthe
author’scollapse,bysomemoresinisterheretic. Thereis
nottheslightestreasontobelievethatanysuchgarbling
evertookplace,noristhereanyevidencethattheircom-
monheritageofpietyresteduponthebrotherasheavily
as it rested upon the sister. On the contrary, it must be
manifest that Nietzsche, in this book, intendedto attack
Christianity headlong and with all arms, that for all his
rapid writinghe putthe utmost careinto it, and thathe
wantedittobeprintedexactlyasitstands. Theideasin
itwereanythingbutnewtohimwhenhesetthemdown.
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INTRODUCTION
Hehadbeendevelopingthemsincethedaysofhisbegin-
ning.Youwillfindsomeofthem,clearlyrecognizable,in
thefirstbookheeverwrote,“TheBirthofTragedy.” You
will find the most important of all of them–the concep-
tion of Christianity as ressentiment–set forth at length in
the first part of “The Genealogy of Morals,” published
underhisownsupervisionin1887.Andtherestarescat-
tered through the whole vast mass of his notes, some-
times as mere questionings but often worked out very
carefully. Moreover, let it not be forgotten that it was
Wagner’s yielding to Christian sentimentality in “Parsi-
fal”thattransformedNietzschefromthefirstamonghis
literary advocates into the most bitter of his opponents.
Hecouldforgiveeveryothersortofmountebankery,but
not that. “In me,” he once said, ”the Christianity of my
forbearsreachesitslogicalconclusion.Inmethesternin-
tellectual conscience that Christianity fosters and makes
paramountturnsagainstChristianity. InmeChristianity
...devoursitself.”
In truth, the present philippic is as necessary to the
completeness of the whole of Nietzsche’s system as the
keystoneistothearch. Allthecurvesofhisspeculation
leaduptoit. Whatheflunghimselfagainst,frombegin-
ningtoendofhisdaysofwriting,wasalways,inthelast
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INTRODUCTION
analysis,Christianityinsomeformorother–Christianity
as a system of practical ethics, Christianity as a political
code,Christianityasmetaphysics,Christianityasagauge
ofthetruth. Itwouldbedifficulttothinkofanyintellec-
tualenterpriseonhislonglistthatdidnot, moreorless
directlyandclearly, relateitselftothismasterenterprise
ofthemall. Itwasasifhisapostasyfromthefaithofhis
fathers,fillinghimwiththefieryzealoftheconvert,and
particularlyoftheconverttoheresy,hadblindedhimto
every other element in the gigantic self-delusion of civi-
lizedman.ThewilltopowerwashisanswertoChristian-
ity’s affectation of humility and self-sacrifice; eternal re-
currencewashismockingcriticismofChristianoptimism
and millennialism; the superman was his candidate for
the place of the Christian ideal of the ”good” man, pru-
dently abased before the throne of God. The things he
chiefly argued for were anti-Christian things–the aban-
donmentofthepurelymoralviewoflife, therehabilita-
tionofinstinct,thedethronementofweaknessandtimid-
ity as ideals, the renunciation of the whole hocus-pocus
ofdogmaticreligion,theexterminationoffalsearistocra-
cies(ofthepriest, ofthepolitician, oftheplutocrat), the
revivalofthehealthy,lordly”innocence”thatwasGreek.
Ifhewasanythinginaword,NietzschewasaGreekborn
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