I further suggest that there may
be a prejudice of pathos on Nietzsche’s part, when he scorns Christianity on
the basis of only those negative traits, granted, justifiably deplorable, but
caused rather by Christian practices than by the core of the essential
Christian faith, which he chooses to see under a magnifying glass, and yet
overlooks those positives, which he himself raises as positives, but without
any attribution to his nemesis’s authorship, or at least co-authorship. Such,
for instance, is the core Christian idea of child-like innocence as the
only passport to heaven, explicitly expressed by Jesus himself, precisely
corresponding to the Creative Child idea of Nietzsche’s own authorship.
Mind you, child-like innocence has nothing to do with a morbid rejection of the
real world in favor of a future heaven. A child does not condemn his flesh or
the sinfulness of humanity. Therefore, the Christianity of Jesus Christ is by
no means what Nietzsche condemns in Christianity. Be childlike is what they
both teach, which is hardly the lesson taken out of Sunday services in most
churches of today or yesterday. I am rather skeptical that such a lesson will
be learned in the churches of tomorrow either…
Paradoxically, the child has no
concept of good and evil. In other words, the child dwells “jenseits von Gut und Böse”…
Thus it appears that there has to
be more compatibility between the two professed antipodes than either
Nietzsche, or, to be fair, his angry Christian detractors are willing to admit.
To be continued…
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