Nietzsche's Philosophy Of Religion

NIETZSCHE’S PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION In his first book, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche observes that Greek tragedy gathered people together as a community in the sight of their gods, and argues that modernity can be rescued from ‘nihilism’ only through the revival of such a festival. This is commonly thought to be a view which did not survive the termination of Nietzsche’s early Wagnerianism, but Julian Young argues, on the basis of an examination of all of Nietzsche’s published works, that his religious communitarianism in fact persists through all his writings. What follows, it is argued, is that the mature Nietzsche is neither an ‘atheist’, an ‘individualist’ nor an ‘immoralist’: he is a German philosopher belonging to a German tradition of conservative communitarianism – though to claim him as a proto-Nazi is radically mistaken. This important reassessment will be of interest to all Nietzsche scholars and to a wide range of readers in German philosophy. j u l i a n y o u n g is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland and honorary Research Professor at the University of Tasmania. His many publications include Heidegger: Off the Beaten Track (2002) edited and translated with Kenneth Haynes, Heidegger’s Later Philosophy (2002) and Heidegger’s Philosophy of Art (2001, 2004). NIETZSCHE’S PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION JULIAN YOUNG CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sa˜o Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521681049 © Julian Young 2006 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2006 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library I S B N -13 978-0-521-85422-1 hardback I S B N -10 0-521-85422-9 hardback I S B N -13 978-0-521-68104-9 paperback I S B N -10 0-521-68104-9 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For David Montgomery Contents Acknowledgements List of abbreviations page xi xii Introduction 1 2 1 Schopenhauer and ‘Man’s Need for Metaphysics’ 8 Idealism and pessimism Religion 8 9 The Birth of Tragedy 14 The problem The questio