Nietzsche, Psychohistory, and the Birth of Christianity

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Traces the development of Nietzsche's ideas on Jesus, St. Paul, and early Christianity. Despite characterizing himself as "the antichrist," Nietzsche had great respect for Jesus and his message and often identified with his life. His opinion of early Christianity--and particularly of St. Paul; the single most hated figure in Nietzsche's passionate career--however, was very different. This volume brings order to Nietzsche's scattered reflections on Jesus, St. Paul, and the birth of Christianity by tracing the development of his ideas and examining the intellectual reality behind his deliberately confrontational remarks concerning early Christianity's key players. By analyzing exactly what it is that Nietzsche celebrates and identifies with in the life and message of Jesus, and criticizes so harshly in the case of St. Paul, the author provides fresh insight into the mind and the philosophy of one of the 19th century's most original thinkers.

Reviews

Rempel is among a growing number of philosophers who take seriously Nietzsche's declaration in Ecce Homo that "a psychologist without equal speaks from my writings." And in this exemplary study, Rempel elucidates quite well how Nietzsche used his distinctive method of genealogical analysis--here conceptualized as "psychohistory"--to trace "the birth of Christianity" to the subterranean fears and desires that animated both the psyches and outward behavior of Jesus, Saint Paul, and the first Christians....Highly recommended for all academic libraries. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty.-Choice
Sympathetic to Nietzsche's project, Morgan Rempel has provided Nietzsche scholars with a detailed monograph on Nietzsche's psychological history of Christianity, whose chief value, I suspect lies particularly in its extended exposition and treatment of Nietzsche's analyses of St. Paul, certainly a much neglected area in the Nietzsche literature Nietzsche, Psychohistory, and the Birth of Christianity admirably fills this lacuna and therefore must be recommended to Nietzsche scholars working in the area of Nietzsche and Christianity, and indeed more generally to scholars in the area of Nietzsche, psychology and religion.-Studies in Religion
"Rempel is among a growing number of philosophers who take seriously Nietzsche's declaration in Ecce Homo that "a psychologist without equal speaks from my writings." And in this exemplary study, Rempel elucidates quite well how Nietzsche used his distinctive method of genealogical analysis--here conceptualized as "psychohistory"--to trace "the birth of Christianity" to the subterranean fears and desires that animated both the psyches and outward behavior of Jesus, Saint Paul, and the first Christians....Highly recommended for all academic libraries. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty."-Choice
"Sympathetic to Nietzsche's project, Morgan Rempel has provided Nietzsche scholars with a detailed monograph on Nietzsche's psychological history of Christianity, whose chief value, I suspect lies particularly in its extended exposition and treatment of Nietzsche's analyses of St. Paul, certainly a much neglected area in the Nietzsche literature Nietzsche, Psychohistory, and the Birth of Christianity admirably fills this lacuna and therefore must be recommended to Nietzsche scholars working in the area of Nietzsche and Christianity, and indeed more generally to scholars in the area of Nietzsche, psychology and religion."-Studies in Religion

Author Bio

MORGAN REMPEL is a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the University of Toronto. He has published scholarly articles on Freud, Nietzsche, and the philosophy of religion.