Friedrich Nietzsche’s Superman and Its Religious Implications

Abstract

This paper examines Nietzsche’s idea of the superman and its religious implications, with a view to showing that despite Nietzsche’s rejection of Christian religion and his attack on religious moral ideals, using his concept of the superman, Nietzsche fails in stripping humanity/man of his religious nature. Nietzsche’s superman represents the highest principle of the development of humanity and the affirmation of man’s full potentialities. He posits the superman as a critique on Christian religion and the crisis of modernity. This is because, according to him, the Christian morality stifles the development, freedom and creativity of humanity/man, as well as making him dependent on faith. Consequently, he advocates for the total rejection and abolition of the Christian moral ideals in order to make way for the freedom of humanity/man and consequently the emergence of super-humanity. Attempts are made to articulate Nietzsche’s concept of the superman and to highlight its link with his entire philosophic system. This will be examined critically, in each segment of the paper, to show its implications for religion. The paper employs the method of historical hermeneutics and textual analysis/exposition.

Keywords: superman, religion, morality, reevaluation of values, Christianity, nihilism and modernity.

DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/45-03

Publication date:October 31^st 2019