PERDOAR

interpretation which had been already made in its origins about Jesus of Nazareth, above
all, coming from Paul. In this work, Nietzsche states that:
In the end, there existed but one Christian, and this one died on the cross (The Anti-
Christ, § 39).
In addition, we read a little further ahead:
Only a Christian practice, a life as was lived by the one who died on the cross, is
Christian […]. Even today, this life is possible; for some, even necessary: The authentic
Christianity, the original, will be possible in all times […]. Not a believing, but a doing,
above all a not-doing-many-things, a being different […] (The Anti-Christ, § 39).
Disregarding now many of the interpretations to which the Nietzschean work has
been submitted, what remains undoubted is the enormous weight that it had upon
European culture or Nietzsche’s way of thinking, for good and for bad. Nietzsche
injured Christianity. In the announcement of the death of God is contained the direction
of the sinking of Christianity and of the birth of the brilliant man, the Übermensch, the
hero capable of transvaluing all values into those defenders of the authentically human
life. Precisely, as was pointed by F. Valadier, 33 one of the nuclear points of the
Nietzschean criticism of Christianity is based on the forgery that, according to him,
Christianity operated on the conception that Jesus had of sin. One of the most relevant
paragraphs of the Nietzschean work is the § 33 of The Anti-Christ. We read here:
In the psychology of the Gospel the concepts of guilt and of punishment are missing;
the same being with that of reward. "Sin", any relation grown apart between God and
man, is eliminated —this is exactly the "Good News" […] It is not a "faith" that which
distinguishes the Christian: the Christian works, he distinguishes himself by a different
way of working […]. The life of the Redeemer was nothing aside from this practice_ his
death was also no less different […]. He did not need, in treating with God, neither
formulas nor rituals_ not even prayer. He broke away from all Jewish doctrine of
penance and reconciliation […]. Neither "penance", nor "prayer to ask for forgiveness"
are paths that lead to God; only the | Gospel practice leads to Him; it is precisely "God".
What the Gospel eliminated was the Jewish concept of "sin", "remission from sin",
"faith", and "redemption by faith" —all the ecclesiastic Jewish doctrine was denied in
the "Good News".
The emphasis that Nietzsche puts in practice is enhanced in § 35 of the same
work, in which he adds:
This "good messenger" died as he lived, coherent with his teachings —not to "redeem
mankind", but to show how one must live.
The «U-turn» that these thoughts brought about unto Western culture is still very
visible in our days. In fact, although the «U-turn» brought about by Nietzsche — or
precisely because of it, because of the fact that all «U-turns» still cause strain on the «Uturned»
poles— today we can speak of forgiveness and forgiving, but we cannot do it as
33 F. VALADIER, Nietzsche et la critique du christianisme, Paris: Cerf 1974, pp. 403-405.
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