I appreciate Devin Reid Saucier’s expansion on amor fati and life-affirmation written in reference to the earlier discussion on paganism and Christianity, and I’m happy to make my response.
Nietzsche quite correctly did write for “higher men”. As Henri de Lubac said, he appeals to man’s inclination to greatness. His seduction to untruth is so powerful for this reason- nobility is elevated beyond its station, and overweening pride surges into rebellion against the Creator. Nietzsche’s emphatic affirmation of this world is an effective restatement of the words first uttered by another creature noble and beautiful, an angel: non serviam. This is the rejection of the Word, the Reason for any and all existence in favor of self-will and self-love.
Men who have abandoned God cannot “create their own meaning” from the resulting chaos and absurdity. Ignoring or rising against Truth and ultimate meaning, they only fashion illusions, clinging to earthly “vitality” to block out the horrors of unavoidable death. Greek tragedy and myth were a response to life’s mysteries that contained a consciousness of supernatural realities, a consciousness not lost but refined by Socrates and Plato. Nietzsche isolated himself from cosmic order. Against it he willed the reign of absurdity and incoherence, as described in his Parable of the Madman:
How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?…God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
In an attempt to overcome the nihilism of the age, he exalted the pagan love of fate. No simple return to ancient ways would do, though, since any reality beyond this world was negated. Nietzsche held forth the vision of the Superman, the quest to become a god. Nothing less could be required of man alone in the universe:
“How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?...Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?
Divinity, however, is only possible in eternity. What lasting joy could come from the superhuman state if all are still condemned to total annihilation? Nietzsche would attempt to reconcile being to becoming through the doctrine of eternal return. This idea is far more than “a reason for living life to its fullest in a world devoid of the supernatural”. Nietzsche’s mystical experiences at Sils Maria and Rapallo attest to his search for immortality of the soul. The divine could not be allowed to stay a phantom of the mind; man would be divine and not merely love fate, but master it.
The “murder” of God is followed up by an elemental lie. Nietzsche bequeathed the world the will to illusion, hoping that “life-giving” myths summoned by the chosen few could replace man’s longing for the Transcendent. Every magnificent turn of his genius was nonetheless rendered impotent in the face of mortality. What life can there be in a kingdom where death is master, where men hurtle toward nothingness?
Nietzsche’s entire war to overthrow the Crucified One, all the streams of fevered blasphemy flowing from the gospel of nihilism, were in vain. Only Christ, the God-Man, frees us from the bonds of fate. In His resurrection we discover the triumph of Love over death.
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Fate and Love
I appreciate Devin Reid Saucier’s expansion on amor fati and life-affirmation written in reference to the earlier discussion on paganism and Christianity, and I’m happy to make my response. Nietzsche quite … [Read More]
Posted by Mark Hackard on October 15, 2009
The Usual Suspects