52 pages • 1 hour read
Friedrich Nietzsche, Transl. H.L. MenckenThe Antichrist
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1895A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Sections 10-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Section 10 Summary
Nietzsche accuses the Protestant theological tradition in Germany of being the primary impediment to Hyperborean thought in the country. He attacks Germany’s then-popular Tübingen School as well as German philosophers’ love of Immanuel Kant. He accuses Kant of being nothing more than another member of Germany’s theological tradition and ultimately detrimental to German philosophy.
Section 11 Summary
Nietzsche continues his attack on Kant, accusing him of being a moralist. He decries the pursuit of morality in itself and takes particular issue with Kant proclaiming a moral arc for humankind, while also failing to credit humankind for forging this arc.
Section 12 Summary
Nietzsche disagrees with Kant’s division of human action between “reason” and “morality” as he regards the latter as a surrender to “beautiful feelings” that corrupt reason and truth (22).
He accuses priests (and philosophers whom he believes are spiritual successors to priests) of relying on these beautiful feelings to define truth for them, rather than applying proper critique.
Section 13 Summary
Nietzsche laments the Hyperboreans (whom he relates to “scientists”) being scorned for producing methods and principles for living that go against the current religious order (22). He wonders if the Hyperboreans’ lack of aesthetic appeal was their vice.
Section 14 Summary
Nietzsche argues against the superiority of the human species over others. He believes humans are interesting, but naturally destructive.
He also argues against the idea of a superior human soul separate from the physical body. The nervous system and other biological components are essential to the human species, and he believes they should not be degraded to promote ideas of an esoteric soul.
Section 15 Summary
Nietzsche describes the worldly structures built by Christianity as imaginary: imaginary causes and effects; imaginary beings and natural history; imaginary psychology, and imaginary teleology (24).
He differentiates Christianity’s imaginary world from the concept of dreams, as dreams at least reflect reality, while Christianity has no contact with it. He claims Christianity’s tendency to focus on pain over pleasure is ultimately what holds the illusion of the imaginary world together and promotes further décadence.
Section 16 Summary
Nietzsche attacks the Christian image of God by arguing against theologians’ belief in his omnibenevolence. He believes gods are necessary as objects of gratitude—which the Christian God accomplishes—but also as objects of fear, scorn, and other negative emotions. Therefore, it is necessary that God also be evil.
Nietzsche believes the Christian God’s omnibenevolence arose from subservience (betrayal of the will to power) being understood as virtuous.
Section 17 Summary
Nietzsche disagrees with the popular assumption that the Judeo-Christian God’s transformation from the God of the Jewish people to the God of goodness was a form of “progress” (25). He deems the Christian God too democratic—damaging his own ability to promote the best qualities of his people in favor of appealing to as many people as possible.
Nietzsche claims that the absence of an evil god was filled by the othering of rival peoples’ gods, including the Hyperboreans’ philosophies.
Section 18 Summary
Nietzsche declares the Christian concept of God a declaration of war on “life, on nature, on the will to live” (26) in itself.
Section 19 Summary
Nietzsche scorns the peoples of northern Europe for failing to create any new gods within Christianity’s 2,000 years, instead upholding the décadence of the Christian concepts of deity and morality.
Sections 10-19 Analysis
While Nietzsche is hostile to many classical philosophers throughout The Antichrist, his attack on Immanuel Kant—one of the most prominent German philosophers of all time—demonstrates the severity of his iconoclasm. His hostility towards a contemporaneous Germany can be summarized in his critique of Kant: They both hide a passionate moralistic outlook behind a veil of logic.
Nietzsche’s argument against the superiority of humans in Section 14 is an extension of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution—reasoning that if all species take part in the evolutionary cycle, with every species’ defining qualities (even human intelligence) arising solely from chance and fitness, then humanity’s resulting dominance over nature is not a moral mandate, but an event of pure chance. This conclusion stands in opposition to the Abrahamic religions’ belief in human superiority, and that—through divine mandate, by virtue of their intelligence, or both—they may do with nature as they please. To Nietzsche, this is a falsehood, as any other animal could have achieved dominance.
Nietzsche’s utilitarian critique of the Christian God stems from human psychology and sociology—while also indirectly arguing for the higher effectiveness of pagan religion. His argument centers on the idea that an effective god or pantheon should be a repository for all human emotions, rather than a god humans must hide their true nature from. By making God omnibenevolent, Christians also imply that there is no justification for directing negative emotions at Him. Emotions such as anger are thus deemed sinful as they go against the holy nature of the soul. In Section 14, Nietzsche challenges this concept by proposing that the human body is as much an essential part of each person as their consciousness—thus when the body feels and inspires negative emotions, these experiences are just as authentic despite being outside the realm of Christian moral judgment.
Nietzsche believes that Christian theologians were somewhat aware that labeling certain emotions as sinful would not make them go away, that their benevolent deity could no longer serve as an adequate repository for their purgation. Thus, these theologians used their evangelism and ecclesiastical power to turn their followers against other religions, inspiring theological violence.
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