The Antichrist (book)

The Antichrist (Der Antichrist) is a German philosophical book by Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1895.

Related Topics:
Friedrich Nietzsche - 1895

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The German title can be translated into English as both "The Anti-christ" and "The Anti-christian"; given the content of the book it is likely to imply both.

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Nietzsche did not demur of Jesus, saying he was the "only one true Christian". For Nietzche, the institution or eponym: Christian was both ironic and hypocritical. However, it was not the Jews this time, it was the Christians who had killed him and his idea. "And time has been reckoned from that dies nefastus, the beginning day of this disaster, from Christianity's first day! Why not rather from its last day--from today?-- Revaluation of all values!"

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The reference to the Antichrist is not intended to refer to the biblical Antichrist but is rather an attack on the "slave morality" and apathy of Western Christianity. Nietzsche's basic claim is that Christianity (as he saw it in the West) is a poisoner of western culture and perversion of the words of and practice of Jesus (who is described, for the most part, favorably). In this light, the shocking and blasphemous title is mainly expressing Nietzsche's animus toward Christianity, as such. The majority of the book is a vicious and detailed attack upon the interpretations of Christ's words by St. Paul and those who followed him. It is, however, worth noting that Nietzsche, although respectful of Jesus' methods and practice, does indeed explicitly represent in some ways the antithesis to Jesus' teachings of passivity and meekness. Therefore the title "Antichrist" also refers the philosophical opposite of Jesus.

Related Topics:
Antichrist - Blasphemous

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