Anyone read Nietzsche?

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We are not supposed to like this guy, as Catholics or Christians I mean. I got more interested in him through Jordan Peterson I admit.
Maybe some of us are afraid to read certain authors, lest we be influenced by Satan. I can appreciate that point of view and I do think we have to be discerning. But In this case Nietzsche is worth exploring. If for no other reason but to be able to strengthen our own faith in the long run.
Example “God is dead” sounds blasphemous. But actually he was concerned about the rise of socialism and other atheistic powers. I think it was him and Dostoevsky who predicted/ prophesised the coming of Communism.
 
I’m not afraid to read him, but I had friends who read him in college and quoted him incessantly and I found him uninteresting, plus I got tired of hearing certain friends go on about him all the time.

I’d rather spend my time reading authors whose work actually interests or inspires me.

Dostoevsky’s work is much more interesting to me.
 
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goodcatholic said:
We are not supposed to like this guy, as Catholics or Christians I mean.
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I disagree. I think he did a good job of showing us the logical consequences of there being no God. He made me realize that the optimistic new age Atheism of today is just a farce.
 
IWantGod said:
I disagree. I think he did a good job of showing us the logical consequences of there being no God. He made me realize that the optimistic new age Atheism of today is just a farce.
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I’m not really well read enough to argue with you, but Bishop Baron , suggests we steer clear of him.
 
goodcatholic said:
I’m not really well read enough to argue with you, but Bishop Baron , suggests we steer clear of him.
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It depends on the strength of your faith i suppose. If somebody expressing their atheistic beliefs is enough to cause you great anxiety and distress, then you should avoid it. A little wind in some peoples direction will blow them clean off the planet. But if you want to take a look at what nihilism looks like and how he deals with that, then i see nothing wrong with taking a look.
 
But Jesus plays for City …
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goodcatholic said:
We are not supposed to like this guy, as Catholics or Christians I mean
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I’ve never got why one can’t enjoy the thoughts of great philosophers, political scientists, statesmen, or theologians, even the infamous ones, just because our views differ…Nietzsche is one of history’s great thought provokers…writngs by such people is like art and literature…even if you find it distasteful, or it delights you, it doesnt matter…its just supposed to stir you…and in MHO, Nietzsche does that!
 
Yes, I was kind of obsessed with Nietzsche in my early twenties. I have read all of his books - most 3,4 or more times. He is widely misunderstood. The death of God part was tragic, not freeing. It was an existential crisis for modern man - Nietzsche was an atheist - what do we do once we realize there is no God; how do we escape nihilism, the horror of the void, meaningless. Truth is indeterminant, so are values. The Übermensch was the man who overcame this by creating/determining values - and no, he was not a Nazi, closer to Zorba the Greek, a good classical Greek, at any rate. (I read the classics because of Nietzsche, just so I could understand him, so no, he is not all bad. And I listened to Wagner because of him - thank God that is behind me) Say Yes to life in spite of suffering, death, the absurd, everything. It’s good stuff, until you realize there is a God. Then the appeal of Nietzsche fades a little. I would say 70-80% of people who claim to understand Nietzsche do not, including both admirers and detractors. Walter Kaufmann is probably the best guide for the curious/interested reader. When I try to read Nietzsche these days I am overwhelmed by a sense of sadness. There is such emptiness without God - Nietzsche did not understand love, how central love is to life - Christ I guess I want to say. Still, it all boils down to either God or Nietzsche, don’t settle for less. 🙂
 
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FollowChrist34 said:
There is such emptiness without God - Nietzsche did not understand love, how central love is to life -
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thank you for your informative post. I have a lot of respect for your opinion because you’ve delved so far into him. Most of us who dismiss Nietzsche, haven’t got a clue. 🙂
 
FollowChrist34 said:
If you can’t figure out this poem, don’t bother with Nietzsche
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I couldn’t and that sounds elitist and dismissive to me. One thing about Jordan Peterson is he communicates using layman’s terms. Whenever he talked about Nietzsche there was never a suggestion, that only he could understand him. Or that Nietzsche was beyond the average reader.
 
Nietzsche eats elitism for breakfast, sorry. He doesn’t have much use for the average. And absolutely no sympathy for it. He is about as far from Jesus/equality/democracy as you can get. He HATES the Christian faith, right? I stand by the fact that people don’t understand him; he is another cultural moral social stratosphere from modern democratic man, especially given the kind of education most people have today. Nietzsche is a foreign language - that is all I am saying. It takes a lot of effort, patience and study to get him, properly - to understand all this and the fact that he is not a Nazi. I am not saying that as something subjective; it is just a fact. Like reading Hegel. He is not for the faint hearted - I rejected him ultimately. I think it was Walter Kaufmann who once said he did not think an American college student could handle a quarter of Nietzsche these days; they would literally break down. If you are serious about Christianity you reject Nietzsche. They are incompatible.
 
I knew that Nietzsche cant be held responsible for Nazi atrocities directly. But indirectly perhaps. People like Hitler twisted what he said to suit themselves.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
He is about as far from Jesus/equality/democracy as you can get. He HATES the Christian faith, right?
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I suspect Nietzsche was brilliant intellectually though I’m not smart enough myself to appreciate it.
Just goes to show that we can over-value intellectual ability.The most important truth he overlooked. From a Christian perspective anyway. You could say Nietzsche was spiritually dumb.
 
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