Nietzsche was to Christianity as Marx was to capitalism. He was one of the fiercest critics of Christian fundamentalism as Marx was to capitalism. His problem was that far from creating a better world, Christianity created a state of slavery where doctrinal conformity was strictly enforced and entire cultures and religions were stamped out.
Islam was a reaction to this sterile conformity. Rather than the One Emperor, One Church, One State motif of the Byzantines, Islam presented itself as a religion of peace, where Muslim, Christian, and Judaism could live side by side. It sought to settle the quarrel between Christian and Jew by proclaiming that it didn't matter whether Jesus died on the cross; the only thing that mattered was submission to God.
Islam was finally checked after several centuries, but the yearning for freedom of thought persisted through the Reformation and the breakup of the Roman Catholic Church and the founding of America. Hence Nietzsche's bid to break free of the chains of fundamentalist morality.
There is a similar conflict between Marx and capitalism, and one of Marx's main criticisms of that system was that all it did was create a situation where the many worked for the few, and it was in the best interests of capitalism to pay workers just enough to keep them alive and healthy so that they could be productive workers. It looked like the American state might be tottering in the Great Depression, when Herbert Hoover and the Republicans took unfettered capitalism to its logical extreme and created the worst economic catastrophe in modern times.
The New Deal was a response to the criticisms of Marx. Rather than do away with capitalism, the New Deal sought to curb its excesses so that all people would have a chance in life. The Minimum Wage and the 40-hour workweek sought to curb the tendency of corporations to keep their workers just alive enough to do the work. Social Security was a way of providing people who could no longer work a way to live. The CCC and the WPA were designed to hire those who were considered "unemployable" by corporate America.
Rather than throw away Christianity, what we must do is to reinvent it so that it takes into account the criticisms of Nietzsche. I propose that a totally new gospel be set up that is based on Matthew 25:
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
In this passage, Jesus specifically states that he did not intend to include only those people who were "Christians." In fact, the exact opposite is true -- Jesus specifically states that there will be those who think that they are "saved," and we think they might be "saved," yet they do not make it. On the other hand, he specifically states that there will be those who don't care about Christianity, when they are in reality rejecting a Jesus that is not in the Bible -- yet they keep his commands and help their neighbors.
We propose a Christian universalism that is totally different from the health and wealth gospels or the fundamentalists. The central beliefs are as follows:
God is the loving Parent of all people.
Jesus Christ reveals the nature and character of God and is the spiritual leader of humankind.
The Bible is an authoritative textual source of divine revelation, but not the only source of spiritual truth.
Sin has negative consequences for the sinner either in this life or the afterlife (some concept of karma or purgatory), but the penalty for sin is not eternal (i.e. doctrines of damnation to hell and annihilationism are rejected).
Universal reconciliation: All souls will ultimately be reconciled with God.
Theosis as the meaning of salvation: All souls will ultimately be conformed to the image of divine perfection in Christ.
Rather than force Christianity into some doctrinal conformity, what we must do is to free people from the chains of spiritual slavery and mindless conformity. Even the central commandments of Christianity must follow this guide -- we can't be compassionate because some book or person told us to -- not even if it were Jesus. We must be compassionate because it is the right thing for do, for whatever reason. It might be a matter of little things --being nice to the person at the counter checking your stuff out. If we are to take anything away from Obama, we must take away the fact that we must first think small. I was at the grand opening of the Obama office in a town half an hour away from here, and the man who is our regional field director said that someone ahead of him saw he was with the Obama campaign and paid for the donuts that they fed us with.
I propose that the New Testament is a process wherein God, through the agency of Jesus, engages in a continuous process of drawing all people to himself. Even Nietzsche pays grudging respect to Jesus, who offered up his life so that we could break the chains of the religious conformity of the day. But instead of continuing this process of freedom, the new church eventually created a totally new system of religious conformity that Nietzsche said was far worse than the Homeric epics.
What the original apostles taught and what the church actually implemented were two different things. Paul taught that human beings were God's offspring, and that God was the father of all, that Jesus made all alive, that Jesus' sacrifice makes many righteous, and that God is in a continuous process of reconciliation. Paul prophesied that every knee shall bow before the Father; this is not a statement of doctrinal conformity. Rather, this is a statement of human brotherhood. It doesn't matter whether you are Muslim or Jew or atheist or Hindu or Jain -- if you confess that Jesus is lord through your actions of love and compassion, you are a fellow believer in my book, even if you go to Mosque or Synagogue or the local coven or whatever. Actions in God's eyes speak louder than any rote prayer that anyone can think up.
Peter went so far as to teach that Jesus went and freed those who had disobeyed long ago through his preaching after his death on the cross. This means that Jesus did not just die for those who go to church, come to the altar, and become saved. That means that he goes and saves those who fell from grace. And John taught us that Jesus did not just die for those of us who go to church every Sunday, pay tithes and do whatever; he taught that Jesus died for the whole world in the same way.
This poem shows how God is unknowable; therefore, we are interdependent on each other; this is an absolutely essential condition of human growth and survival.
If you see a man who's broken,
Pick him up and carry him;
If you see a woman who's broken,
Pull her all into your arms,
'Cause we don't know where we come from.
We don't know what we are.
The mistake that fundamentalism made was that it took a God who is unknowable and is far grander than anything we could ever comprehend and tried to define him in human terms and confine him to their image. In so doing, man usurped the throne of God and enslaved him in chains and crucified the Son of Man all over again. In trying to enslave their Roman masters, in the terms of Nietzsche, they not only enslaved the Romans and themselves, they enslaved and killed God himself.
It is a false choice to argue that we can only have either universal mediocrity or a few great philosopher kings controlling the masses. The New Deal has proven that both can be achieved. From FDR and onward, our country rose out of the turmoil and ashes of the Great Depression into a country where we had collective greatness. We defeated the Nazis and fascists, lifted the whole country out of poverty, provided for our elderly, abolished Jim Crow, appointed progressive judges who enforced the Constitution, created Medicaid and Medicare, and went to the moon. The problem with Republicanism, among other things, is that it frames wealth as a matter of winning and losing and posits that the wealthy are the winners in life and the poor are the losers. The Republicans have been proven wrong by history, which has shown the exact opposite.
Let us return to Nietzsche and see how we have addressed his objections to Christianity:
Morality:
Nietzsche argues that master morality involves wealth, strength, health, and power, whereas slave morality involves turning these traits on their head -- charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and subservience were seen as good while master morality was seen as bad. I would suggest that man is created in the image of God in Christian theology; therefore, man has the responsiblity to break his own chains; then, he can see to break the chains of others. Man must break the chains of dependency on others for his financial, physical, or spiritual well-being. When we enter a state of slavery, we enter a state of mind where we cast the mote out of others rather than cast it out of ourselves.
The Death of God:
Nietzsche held that the advances in science would kill the Christian God and that therefore, man had two choices -- create his own morality, or retreat into the walls of nihilism, where there was nothing to live for and no meaning to life. But there is a third way -- rather than confine ourselves to the prison of creationism and Biblical literalism, we can adapt -- we can make science the prime authority rather than the Bible. Ever since Copernicus proved that the earth orbited around the sun, one conventional doctrine after another that was taught in the Bible has been debunked by modern science, cumulating in the work of Charles Darwin. The Bible is not a literal account of the world; it is simply a record of human perceptions about the world which reflect the flaws of humanity. It reflects the prejudices of the times and it exhibits a highly pragmatic streak, such as Paul's injunctions to live at peace with the Roman authorities and to conform to the customs of the time that did not contradict Christian teachings.
The Will to Power:
There is a three-way debate on whether humanity wants happiness, to live and propagate their species, or to achieve power. Christianity argues for happiness through love of one's neighbor, while Nietzsche argues that humanity's goal is power. This argument can be resolved if we understand the three concepts as not mutually exclusive. For instance, Black America had to strive for power in order to shake free of the bonds of segregation. We have to strive for power to rid the country once and for all of the tyranny of the Bush administration. But if we are angry and bitter and resentful all the time, we will not win over the people whom we are trying to win over.
It is important to understand that Christianity does not mean that we should be disengaged with the world -- far from it. The early Christians merely wanted to live their lives in peace without persecution; however, in this day and age, the fact that we have the right to free speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to vote means that we have a lot more responsibility for the well-being of ourselves and our fellow-man. In this regard, the commandment to render unto Caesar entails more than just paying taxes; it means active participation.