The Antichrist · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
32.
I can only repeat that I set myself against all efforts to intrude the fanatic into the figure of the Saviour: the very word _impérieux_, used by Renan, is alone enough to _annul_ the type. What the "glad tidings" tell us is simply that there are no more contradictions; the kingdom of heaven belongs to _children_; the faith that is voiced here is no more an embattled faith--it is at hand, it has been from the beginning, it is a sort of recrudescent childishness of the spirit. The physiologists, at all events, are familiar with such a delayed and incomplete puberty in the living organism, the result of degeneration. A faith of this sort is not furious, it does not denounce, it does not defend itself: it does not come with "the sword"--it does not realize how it will one day set man against man. It does not manifest itself either by miracles, or by rewards and promises, or by "scriptures": it is itself, first and last, its own miracle, its own reward, its own promise, its own "kingdom of God." This faith does not formulate itself--it simply _lives_, and so guards itself against formulae.
To be sure, the accident of environment, of educational background gives prominence to concepts of a certain sort: in primitive Christianity one finds _only_ concepts of a Judaeo-Semitic character (--that of eating and drinking at the last supper belongs to this category--an idea which, like everything else Jewish, has been badly mauled by the church). But let us be careful not to see in all this anything more than symbolical language, semantics[6] an opportunity to speak in parables. It is only on the theory that no work is to be taken literally that this anti-realist is able to speak at all. Set down among Hindus he would have made use of the concepts of Sankhya,[7] and among Chinese he would have employed those of Lao-tse[8]--and in neither case would it have made any difference to him.--With a little freedom in the use of words, one might actually call Jesus a "free spirit"[9]--he cares nothing for what is established: the word _killeth_,[10] whatever is established _killeth_. The idea of "life" as an _experience_, as he alone conceives it, stands opposed to his mind to every sort of word, formula, law, belief and dogma.
He speaks only of inner things: "life" or "truth" or "light" is his word for the innermost--in his sight everything else, the whole of reality, all nature, even language, has significance only as sign, as allegory.--Here it is of paramount importance to be led into no error by the temptations lying in Christian, or rather _ecclesiastical_ prejudices: such a symbolism _par excellence_ stands outside all religion, all notions of worship, all history, all natural science, all worldly experience, all knowledge, all politics, all psychology, all books, all art--his "wisdom" is precisely a _pure ignorance_[11] of all such things. He has never heard of _culture_; he doesn't have to make war on it--he doesn't even deny it.... The same thing may be said of the _state_, of the whole bourgeoise social order, of labour, of war--he has no ground for denying "the world," for he knows nothing of the ecclesiastical concept of "the world".... _Denial_ is precisely the thing that is impossible to him.--In the same way he lacks argumentative capacity, and has no belief that an article of faith, a "truth," may be established by proofs (--_his_ proofs are inner "lights," subjective sensations of happiness and self-approval, simple "proofs of power"--). Such a doctrine _cannot_ contradict: it doesn't know that other doctrines exist, or _can_ exist, and is wholly incapable of imagining anything opposed to it.... If anything of the sort is ever encountered, it laments the "blindness" with sincere sympathy--for it alone has "light"--but it does not offer objections.... [6] The word _Semiotik_ is in the text, but it is probable that _Semantik_ is what Nietzsche had in mind. [7] One of the six great systems of Hindu philosophy. [8] The reputed founder of Taoism. [9] Nietzsche's name for one accepting his own philosophy. [10] That is, the strict letter of the law--the chief target of Jesus's early preaching. [11] A reference to the "pure ignorance" (_reine Thorheit_) of Parsifal.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.