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Political Theologies Surrounding the Nietzschean “Death of God” Trope

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Published/Copyright: October 8, 2020

Abstract

Approaches to Nietzsche’s political philosophy abound. In this article, however, we explore the possibility of identifying not only a political philosophy, but also a political-theological reading in Nietzsche’s texts. In fact, such a political-theological reading already has something of a genealogy. In the 1960s, “radical theology” appropriated the Nietzschean topic of the death of God, which engendered a transferred radical political theology consisting in radical democracy. The first part of this article explores twentieth-century political theologies surrounding the death of God. We ask herein if this is the only possible political-theological reading of Nietzsche’s texts. The second part argues that, in fact, we can ascribe to Nietzsche a “theological” intention that is transferable to his political theory in a way that differs from the attempts of radical political theology and other political theologies surrounding the death of God. We conclude that, in any case, Nietzsche’s political theology aims to counterbalance St. Paul’s nihilism more than to constitute a determined political view.


Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Emmanuel Cattin, Didier Franck, Vanessa Lemm and Maria Guibert for their comments on the first draft of this article during the workshop on “Nietzsche et la Religion” that took place in Paris, Sorbonne in April 2019. I would also like to thank my research team in the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra.


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Published Online: 2020-10-08
Published in Print: 2020-10-27

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Abhandlungen
  3. Eine psychophysiologische Lektüre der Vorreden von 1886/87. Genese und Bedeutung von „Krankheit“ und „Gesundheit“ in Nietzsches Spätphilosophie
  4. Abenteurer und Entdecker vor dem „Theater-Auge“ in Nietzsches Morgenröthe
  5. Vom Krieg zur Liebe. Nietzsches Philosophieren über Männlichkeiten im Lichte von Gegenwartsdebatten
  6. The Psychological Theory of On the Utility and Liability of History for Life
  7. A Dynamic Interpretation of Nietzsche’s “The Greatest Weight”
  8. Political Theologies Surrounding the Nietzschean “Death of God” Trope
  9. The Will to Synthesis: Nietzsche, Carnap and the Continental-Analytic Gap
  10. Herbert Spencer: A Case History of Nietzsche’s Conception of Decadence
  11. Texte et Contexte. Georges Bataille Lecteur de Nietzsche dans la Revue Acéphale
  12. Diskussionsbeitrag
  13. Does Nietzsche have aNachlass”?
  14. Berichte
  15. „Odi profanum vulgus et arceo“. Zwei lateinische Oden des Schülers Nietzsche
  16. Nietzsche und die Worte des Avestā. Lektürespuren parsischer Texte in Also sprach Zarathustra
  17. Nachweise zur Quellenforschung
  18. NACHWEIS AUS LUDWIG PRELLER, HERMIPPI SMYRNAEI PERIPATETICI FRAGMENTA, IN: NEUE JAHRBÜCHER FÜR PHILOLOGIE UND PAEDAGOGIK 17.1 (1836)
  19. NACHWEISE AUS ARNOBIUS DER AFRIKANER, SIEBEN BÜCHER WIDER DIE HEIDEN (1842)
  20. NACHWEISE ZU QUELLEN DER MORGENRÖTHE
  21. NACHWEIS AUS FRIEDRICH UEBERWEG, UEBER DIE PLATONISCHE WELTSEELE, IN: RHEINISCHES MUSEUM 9 (1854)
  22. NACHWEIS AUS PLATON’S WERKE (1855–1869)
  23. NACHWEISE AUS JACOB BERNAYS, JOSEPH JUSTUS SCALIGER (1855)
  24. NACHWEISE AUS GOTTFRIED BERNHARDY, GRUNDRISS DER RÖMISCHEN LITTERATUR (1865)
  25. NACHWEISE AUS OTTO JAHN, AUS DER ALTERTHUMSWISSENSCHAFT (1868)
  26. NACHWEIS AUS MORITZ VON ENGELHARDT, DAS CHRISTENTHUM JUSTINS DES MÄRTYRERS (1878)
  27. Rezensionen
  28. Some Recent Work on Nietzsche’s Ethical Thought
  29. Beyond Onto-theology and Metaphysics: the Cases of Heidegger and Nietzsche
  30. Neuerscheinungen zu Nietzsches Ästhetik
  31. Nietzsche’s Engagement with Kant and the Kantian Legacy
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