VIII. Nietzsche’s Literary WorkNietzsche was trained in classical philology, which would hold the contemporary designation “classics.” His first published work, The Birth of Tragedy (1872) attempted to explain Greek art and more generally Greek culture in a way that gives insight into the state of German culture. His 1878 work Human, All Too Human, initiated a steady stream of books that were philosophical, psychological, historical and cultural in content. These works were written in several literary forms, including essays, aphorisms, and poetry. In 1901 his sister published as The Will to Power, which was a collection of his notes from 1883-1888. She published in 1908 his autobiography Ecce Homo.
IX. Nietzsche and Christianity.
Like Marx and Schopenhauer, Nietzsche rejected Christianity. Although his views on Christianity appear here and there throughout his philosophical works, they are systematically developed in The Ant-Christ, which was published in 1895, after he had become insane. Nietzsche’s criticisms of Christianity were not directed at Jesus, but rather at the religion created by his followers. Nietzsche wrote, “In truth there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross” (The Antichrist, section 39). Nietzsche viewed Christianity as a socio-cultural phenomenon. His chief criticism was that it has a debilitating effect on the people who are under its sway.
X. The Joyful Wisdom
Nietzsche published The Joyful Wisdom, with a prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix in Songs in 1882. More recently, the title has been translated as The Gay Science. Nietzsche described the goal of the book as “to erect a new image and ideal of the free spirit.” The book was the last in a “series” of books with this goal, the others being Human, All Too-Human (1887), The Wanderer and his Shadow (1880), and Dawn: Thoughts about the Prejudices of Morality (1881). The book consists of 63 rhymes, 383 very short essays, and 14 songs.
XI. The Death of God
Nietzsche’s famous proclamation that “God is dead” appears first in Section 108 of The Joyful Wisdom. In this section, entitled “New Struggles”, Nietzsche states that the “shadow” of the dead God will remain and will terrorize humans for millennia to come. It is “we”, the free spirits, who will have to overcome the shadow of the dead God. IN section 343, “What Our Cheerfulness Signifies,” Nietzsche describes the death of God as “the belief in the Christian has become unworthy of belief.” He welcomes the new unbelief as opening up new horizons. One specific consequence of the death of God is that “our entire European morality, which is based on faith in God, is undermined.
