Contesting spirit : Nietzsche, affirmation, religion / Tyler T. Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, Tyler T., 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion--Philosophy--History--19th century.

Religion.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900--Religion.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (245 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Challenging the dominant scholarly consensus that Nietzsche is simply an enemy of religion, Tyler Roberts examines the place of religion in Nietzsche's thought and Nietzsche's thought as a site of religion. Roberts argues that Nietzsche's conceptualization and cultivation of an affirmative self require that we interrogate the ambiguities that mark his criticisms of asceticism and mysticism. What emerges is a vision of Nietzsche's philosophy as the enactment of a spiritual quest informed by transfigured versions of religious tropes and practices. Nietzsche criticizes the ascetic hatred of the body and this-worldly life, yet engages in rigorous practices of self-denial--he sees philosophy as such a practice--and affirms the need of imposing suffering on oneself in order to enhance the spirit. He dismisses the "intoxication" of mysticism, yet links mysticism, power, and creativity, and describes his own self-transcending experiences. The tensions in his relation to religion are closely related to that between negation and affirmation in his thinking in general. In Roberts's view, Nietzsche's transfigurations of religion offer resources for a postmodern religious imagination. Though as a "master of suspicion," Nietzsche, with Freud and Marx, is an integral part of modern antireligion, he has the power to take us beyond the flat, modern distinction between the secular and the religious--a distinction that, at the end of modernity, begs to be reexamined.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

NOTE ON TEXTS AND CITATIONS

Introduction: NIETZSCHE AND RELIGION

Chapter One. Too Much of Nothing: Metaphysics and the Value of Existence

Chapter Two. Figuring Religion, Contesting Spirit

Chapter Three. Nietzsche's Asceticism

Chapter Four. The Problem of Mysticism in Nietzsche

Chapter Five. Ecstatic Philosophy

Chapter Six. Nietzsche's Affirmation: A Passion for the Real

Conclusion: Alterity and Affirmation

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-223) and index.

ISBN:

9786612753466

9781400813117

1400813115

9780691059372

0691059373

9781282753464

1282753460

9781400822614

1400822610

OCLC:

700688676