Christianity Without Christ

I felt challenged by a friend to find out more about the thoughts and writing of Friedrich Nietzsche. I must admit that I have kept him on arm’s length from my days of studying philosophy. I was young and not well grounded in my Christian faith then, and Nietzsche was for me a scary monster. Now I am not so young anymore, and much more grounded in my faith. I found a book on the shelf about Nietzsche and Christianity, written by Karl Jaspers. 

Most of us know that Nietzsche was a rabid critic of Christianity, lashing out in different ways against the Christian tradition he was brought up in, which was a pietistic Lutheran tradition. At the same he has great admiration for individual Christians and he admits the value of the Christian moral teachings in society.

Friedrich Nietzsche

What strikes me, and bothers me, is to meet this thinker and realize that all the Christian influence in his upbringing, in his own thought patterns and world views – remained an empty shell, for there was no connection with Christ, the Saviour.

His experience of this shallow emptiness is painful to see. He claims that the Christian tradition – Christendom through history – has distorted the true meaning of Jesus and his work. He presents Jesus as a psychological type who is in essence self-destructive in his lack of will to fight. He sees Jesus as a noble, but weak character; actually like a simpleton, who lets himself be pushed into a violent execution.

Who is Jesus Christ? Who is he to you? Has he become your own redeemer, your atoner, your saviour from sin and death? Is he real in your life? Is he the Lord of your life?

I see Nietzsche’s struggle against the framework of Christianity, where he is expected to live up to impossible moral standards, but where he never lets the Lord of Life into his heart.  He sees around him many who do not live according to their beliefs, and to him it is grave hypocrisy. A Buddhist monk lives differently than others, he noticed, but Christians live like anyone else. He expected there to be clear consequences of the faith. On occasion he did see it in some.

A Christless Christianity is an empty shell, structured by laws and morality. Only by the power of God can we live a life that pleases God. Nietzsche never knew the power of God.  It is sad.

            I have a strong notion that he was hindered and blinded by his own genius. He is bright, he penetrates thoughts and patterns in his contemporary society – and critiques them. He is the one that coined the phrase “ God is dead”.  This is a statement about a reality he sensed, not in defiance – which would be’ I do not believe in God’. No, this statement denotes a fact to him: There is no god in this world, no god in people’s lives, no god anywhere. All there is inside the structures of belief is emptiness.

It is interesting how he foresees the consequences of this nothingness, emptiness – nihilism. In essence, he warns against it. He describes the feelings of detachment, of fear and loneliness; and he mentions shame – a shame that is rooted in insufficiency, of weakness towards adhering to the demands of the morality, or of the whole shell of his Christian tradition. In response to this he calls for the strong, he calls for fighting, and he tries to overcome the foil of misdirected faith by claiming that truth will be victorious. And the truth he is referring to is the truth of nihilism.

He shows an intense drive to settle what is true. He wants to come to the bottom of life’s deeper questions. But he walks the paths so alone. He does not see the loving Father who walks next to him. He shuts his heart for God’s grace. He develops a view of history, which is reflecting his inner struggle.  The 2000 years of Christian influence, he calls a lie, or a distortion of the original teachings of Jesus. He sees a history of power and vengeance, of manipulations and abuse of power. He wants to find the more pure and untainted expression of truth in the pre-Christian Greek society…

I have often come across reference to Nietzsche’s ideas in other modern thinkers, and now I am starting to understand why. They may not settle for his solutions, but he raises deep and important questions.

As a Christian, a person who has gone from death to life, who have experienced the power and the grace of God in my life, who knows that to live a Christian life, we can only do so by the power of God, and not in our strength – I pray that more of my fellow countrymen may know the reality of God’s existence. Many live in a culturally Christian world, but with a Christ-less Christianity.

And I want to challenge my friend: Open your door for Jesus, the Lord of Life.

Surrender to him, and he will give you peace. A daily challenge is this.