Nietzsche’s ‘Christian virtues’

Although Nietzsche is admittedly one of the most anti-Christian thinkers in the history of philosophy, this does certainly not mean that Christianity has not left traces in his thinking. Quite the contrary. The relation between Nietzsche and the Christian tradition with regard to the role of the virtues has, however, not yet been investigated. This project will trace the role of the Christian virtues (faith, love and hope) in Nietzsche’s writings. Defining characteristics of these Christian virtues include: their being a transformation of the will, and their being given (or withheld). If we use Nietzsche in order to find a secular interpretation of these Christian virtues, we do not make him into the Christian that he did not want to be. Instead we emancipate this part of a Christian tradition to a life independent from a Christian framework.