An Excuse To Be Redeemed

Friedrich Nietzsche is one of my favorite philosophers. No, I do not agree with him. But I really appreciate that he called the hand of the naturalists. If life is a struggle for existence in which the fittest survive, then strength is the ultimate virtue–to call “strength” a virtue truly was even too radical for the naturalists/evolutionists. But, Neitzsche is right. For the first time, virtue is not connected to knowledge (Plato). Good is what survives, which wins; bad is what gives way and falls (Will Durant). The naturalists were brave enough to reject religion, Nietzsche said, but too cowardly to reject Christian morality.

Nietzsche warned us, though, that with the collapse of Christianity and the rise of nascent naturalism, a totalitarian state was inevitable. We see in the life of Adolf Hitler the dark fulfillment of that prophecy.

The good news, however, is that there is strength in weakness, in Christ. We are crucified with Christ nonetheless we live . . . Gals. 2: 20. Nietzsche got it wrong. Christianity is not an excuse to be powerless but an excuse to be redeemed. Within that theological concept–something that cannot be duplicated philosophically–the believer is more fulfilled that Nietzsche taunted superman.

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