Ad
related to: nietzsche god is dead
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
God is dead" (German: Gott ist tot [ɡɔt ɪst toːt] ⓘ; also known as the death of God) is a statement made by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The first instance of this statement in Nietzsche's writings is in his 1882 The Gay Science , where it appears three times.
Nietzsche's concept "God is dead" applies to the doctrines of Christendom, though not to all other faiths: he claimed that Buddhism is a successful religion that he complimented for fostering critical thought. [161] Still, Nietzsche saw his philosophy as a counter-movement to nihilism through appreciation of art:
The theme of God's "death" became more explicit in the theosophism [clarification needed] of the 18th- and 19th-century mystic William Blake.In his intricately engraved illuminated books, Blake sought to throw off the dogmatism of his contemporary Christianity and, guided by a lifetime of vivid visions, examine the dark, destructive, and apocalyptic undercurrent of theology.
The Gay Science (German: Die fröhliche Wissenschaft; sometimes translated as The Joyful Wisdom or The Joyous Science) is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche published in 1882, and followed by a second edition in 1887 after the completion of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil.
The current death-of-God group believes that God is indeed absolutely dead, but proposes to carry on and write a theology without theos, without God. — Toward a Hidden God The article pointed out that while this movement had roots in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche , it also drew on a broader range of thinkers.
While the concept of God was the ultimate expression of other-worldly values and their underlying instincts, belief in God nevertheless did give meaning to life for a time. "God is dead" means that the idea of God can no longer provide values. Nietzsche refers to this crucial paradigm shift as a reevaluation of values. [10]
In his book, The Gay Science, Nietzsche utters his famous statement "God is dead", which refers to his belief that morality can no longer be reasonably dictated by religion. [4] It is for this reason that many associate Nietzsche's philosophy with nihilism . [ 5 ]
The last man, Nietzsche predicted, would be one response to the problem of nihilism. But the full implications of the death of God had yet to unfold: "The event itself is far too great, too distant, too remote from the multitude's capacity for comprehension even for the tidings of it to be thought of as having arrived as yet." [2]