The Antichrist

The Antichrist (German: Der Antichrist) is a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1895. Although it was written in 1888, its controversial content made Franz Overbeck and Heinrich Köselitz delay its publication, along with Ecce Homo. The German title can be translated into English as either The Anti-Christ or The Anti-Christian, depending on how the German word Christ is translated. Nietzsche claimed that the Christian religion and its morality are based on imaginary fictions. However, "... this entire fictional world has its roots in hatred of the natural (—actuality!—)." Such hatred results from Christianity's decadence, which is reflected by the Christian conception of God. If Christians were naturally strong and confident, they would have a God who is destructive as well as good. A God who counsels love of enemy, as well as of friend, is a God of a people who feel themselves as perishing and without hope. Weak, decadent, and sick people, whose will to power has declined, will give themselves a God who is purely good, according to Nietzsche. They will then attribute evil and deviltry to their masters' God. Metaphysicians have eliminated the attributes of virile (männlichen) virtues, such as strength, bravery, and pride, from the concept of God. As a result, it deteriorated into an insubstantial ideal, pure spirit, Absolute, or thing in itself. Nietzsche opposed the Christian concept of God because it "... degenerated into the contradiction of life, instead of being life's transfiguration and eternal 'Yes'!" The Christian God is a "... declaration of war against life, against nature, against the will to live!" This God is a "... formula for every slander against 'this world,' for every lie about the 'beyond'!" Recalling Schopenhauer's description of the denial of the will to live and the subsequent empty nothingness, Nietzsche proclaimed that the Christian God is "... the sanctification of the will to nothingness!"