Recent Work on Nietzsche and Religion

Abstract Religion plays an important role in Nietzsche’s thought, but the exact nature of this role is far from clear. Four recent books treat different aspects of Nietzsche’s thought about religion in general and Christianity in particular. Nevin’s book is an interpretation of Nietzsche by a believing Christian which reads him as the culmination of the dialectic of secularization in German Protestantism. Saarinen inquires into religion in Nietzsche through a methodological focus on “mood” ( Stimmung ). The volume edited by Manning and Santini compiles essays which deal with various themes related to religion in Nietzsche, such as Apollo, the ancient Greek mystery cults, polytheism, and St. Paul’s notion of flesh. The volume edited by Came compiles essays by leading scholars of Nietzsche in the Anglo-American analytic style of interpretation. Two of these essays read Nietzsche as defined by the Christian heritage against which he rebels. All deal in some way with the question of “life affirmation.” Nietzsche’s decision to present his own thought in part through increasingly strident polemics against Christianity allows us to conclude that coming to grips with Nietzsche involves coming to grips with Christianity – and that he wanted it to be this way.