Nietzsche and Christians with beautiful feet
pp. 157-172
in: Jeremiah Hackett, Jerald Wallulis (eds), Philosophy of religion for a new century, Berlin, Springer, 2004Abstract
Nietzsche is the philosopher of contradiction. Does he assert one thing, then somewhere he will claim the opposite. Anyone who wants to discredit him might simply draw up two parallel columns of quotations. We need not misrepresent him: disconcertingly he admits as much. "This thinker needs no one to refute him: he does that for himself."1 If we are satisfied with that and go away happy, Nietzsche is content to see the back of us. He is more than pleased to think that the public at large will misunderstand him: only the persistent few will penetrate to the heart of his message. And message it is. Like some Galilean preacher he does not care to cast his pearls before swine. He has a message for the few. It is a message and not information. His philosophy was developed at great personal cost. It is a philosophy for living. It is a message for those who suspect that there should be more to life than this, and who are not afraid of the journey. His philosophy is a call to the life of struggle: the loss might be everything we hold dear, the reward is life itself. To most people this sounds like a poor bargain. They turn away, much to Nietzsche" s relief. Nietzsche is the philosopher of contradiction, but the contradictions are the life choices he sets before us.
