Redeeming Nietzsche : On the Piety of Unbelief

O Zarathustra, you are more pious than you believe, with such unbelief! Some god in you has converted you to your goodness.' (Thus Spake Zarathustra) Best known for having declared the death of God, Nietzsche was a thinker thoroughly absorbed in the Christian tradition in which he was born and raised. Yet while the atheist Nietzsche is well known, the pious Nietzsche is seldom recognised and rarely understood. Redeeming Nietzsche examines the residual theologian in the most vociferous of atheists. Fraser demonstrates that although Nietzsche rejected God, he remained obsessed with the question of human salvation. Examining his accounts of art, truth, morality and eternity, Nietzsche's thought is revealed to be a series of experiments in redemption. However, when placed in direct confrontation with the enormity of modern understandings of destruction, Nietzsche's prescriptions for human salvation look like the imaginings of a more comfortable age. Drawing upon the work of Kundera, Nussbaum, Girard and Cavell, Fraser traces the successive failures of Nietzsche's salvation theology to an inability fully to face the depths of human suffering. Though Nietzsche's powerful attack upon Christianity has remained influential for over a century, few have attempted to mount a sustained theological critique of his thought. Redeeming Nietzsche challenges assumptions of Nietzsche's secularity and opens up a new front in Nietzsche scholarship Fraser Addresses Nietzsche's Relationship To A Secular Theology That Asks Not Whether God Exists, But How Man Might Be Saved. He Radically Suggests That Nietzsche's Affirmation Of Life Functions Only At The Ultimate Cost Of Self-absorption & Denial. 1. Holy Nietzsche -- In Search Of God? -- Early Appropriations Of Nietzschean 'religiosity' -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- Karl Barth -- Death Of God Theology -- Eberhard Jungel -- The Post-modern Nietzsche -- 2. The Orientation Of Nietzsche's Question Of God -- On Style And Seduction -- The Christianity Of Nietzsche's Youth -- Nietzsche And Luther -- Nietzsche And Pietism -- 3. Facing The Truth, Outfacing The Horror -- Identifying A Basic Soteriological Model -- The Influence Of Schopenhauer's Metaphysics Of Salvation Upon The Birth Of Tragedy -- Dionysus And Redemption -- Facing The Truth -- The Egyptianism Of Salvation -- Salvation As Art -- 4. Redeeming Redemption -- The Nihilism Of Salvation -- Internal And External Transcendence -- Nietzsche's Story Of Judeo-christianity -- Suffering And The Ascetic Ideal -- Avoiding Pain -- Genealogy, Sickness And Health -- 5. Parables Of Innocence And Judgement -- Born Again -- Redeeming The Past -- The Present Tense Of Eternity -- 6. Salvation, Kitsch And The Denial Of Shit -- Shit -- 'kitsch Is The Absolute Denial Of Shit' -- Wagnerian Decadence -- Kitsch Soteriology And The Final Solution -- Nietzsche's Aristocratic Kitsch -- Christianity And Shit -- 7. Sacrifice And The Logic Of Exclusion -- Salvation And Sacrifice -- Jesus Contra Dionysus -- Nietzsche's Appeal To Stoicism -- 8. Fear Of The Other -- Honesty -- Stanley Cavell And 'skepticism' -- Ecce Homo -- Reciprocity, Intimacy And Marriage. Giles Fraser. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [181]-187) And Index. Best known for having declared the death of God, Nietzsche was a thinker thoroughly absorbed in the Christian tradition in which he was born and raised. Yet while the atheist Nietzsche is well known, the pious Nietzsche is seldom recognized and rarely understood. Redeeming Nietzsche examines the residual theologian in the most vociferous of atheists.

Fraser demonstrates that although Nietzsche rejected God, he remained obsessed with the question of human salvation. Examining his accounts of art, truth, morality and eternity, Nietzsche's thought is revealed to be a series of experiments in redemption.

Best known for having declared the death of God, Nietzsche was a thinker thoroughly absorbed in the Christian tradition in which he was born and raised. Yet while the atheist Nietzsche is well known, the pious Nietzsche is seldom recognized and rarely understood. Redeeming Nietzsche examines the residual theologian in the most vociferous of atheists. Giles Fraser demonstrates that although Nietzsche rejected God, he remained obsessed with the question of human salvation. Examining his accounts of art, truth, morality and eternity, Nietzsche's thought is revealed to be Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Holy Nietzsche......Page 10 The orientation of Nietzsche's question of God......Page 33 Facing the truth, outfacing the horror......Page 54 Redeeming redemption......Page 81 Parables of innocence and judgement......Page 109 Salvation, kitsch and the denial of shit......Page 131 Sacrifice and the logic of exclusion......Page 150 Fear of the other......Page 163 Notes......Page 176 Bibliography......Page 190 Index......Page 197 Humanities Book Cover 1 Title 4 Contents 5 Acknowledgements 8 Holy Nietzsche 10 The orientation of Nietzsche's question of God 33 Facing the truth, outfacing the horror 54 Redeeming redemption 81 Parables of innocence and judgement 109 Salvation, kitsch and the denial of shit 131 Sacrifice and the logic of exclusion 150 Fear of the other 163 Notes 176 Bibliography 190 Index 197 In the last few months before his final mental breakdown Nietzsche wrote of his fear that some day he would be pronounced 'holy'. In the last few months before his final mental breakdown Nietszche wrote of his fear that some day he would be pronounced 'holy'.