Times and Seasons is on a bit of a philosophical roll of late. After three different threads related to Derrida's death, we have a thread discussing and contrasting Longfellow and Nietzsche. This was somewhat related to our discussion here from a few weeks ago on Nietzsche and Christianity. The basic idea is how to take the God who is dead. Ben Huff, who I believe just graduated from Notre Dame in philosophy, made the following quotation I thought was quite good.
I read Nietzsche’s point more as indicated in the Michalson quotes Ebenezer offers. On my reading, when God was alive, he was not merely a metaphysical principle. It is partly in making God into a metaphysical principle that we have killed him. We have talked ourselves out of a religiously vital conception of God, replacing this with a dead God, for example, by implicating God in our self-vivisecting Will to Truth. Nietzsche sees great nobility in the Old Testament accounts of God, and the belief in God they implied. This is a living way to believe in a living God. See
My own thought, which came to me in part due to my various medieval readings this week, was that of negative theology. For instance the famous German Christian neoPlatonist, Meister Eckhart had a prayer where he said, "I Pray God Rid Me of god." The idea isn't quite as shocking as it sounds. The idea is that our ideas of God are not God. God is something other. To pray to be rid of god - to put him to death, in a way - is to pray to be rid of our false ideas of God. Our apostate notions, to use Mormon terminology.
Interesting how Nietzsche and Kierkegard, both in revolt against Hegelian idealism but seemingly coming at the idea of God from opposing positions, were also both highly critical of the organized religion of their day yet at some level fairly religious. Perhaps consideration of "faith" as an abstract concept enlightens a bit. Plainly K. endorsed a leap of faith and was overtly religious in much of his writing, but I think one would have to say N. argued for a form of non-theistic faith as well. Amor fati implies both a notion of Fate and advocates an acceptance or an embrace of it.
I just noticed the above didn't have a link to the Times and Seasons thread. It is Nietzsche and Longfellow. My apologies.
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