Nietzsche, Philosopher of Religion

Abstract

The current article brings a discussion around the religious conceptions
introduced by Nietzsche in two distinct moments: in his debut book, The Birth of
Tragedy, and in the book written in his last phase of his thought, The Antichrist. We take
as starting point a theological squabble that took place in the nineteenth century, when
theologians were divided between those who had a historical line of interpretation of the
biblical texts, of which Friedrich Schleiermacher and Adolf von Harnack are examples,
and the ones that had an orthodox line guided by a dogmatic key, such as Christian Hermann Weisse. Our goal is to show that in spite of the critical analysis of
Christianism developed in books as The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche leaves open
space for the religious experience, deeming it positively, regarding either the Greek
experience, in his first book, or the involvement with the Gospels, in his The Antichrist
book. Therefore, we support the thesis that Nietzsche holds an important spot in the
philosophy of religion, while we present his arguments in his two mentioned works.