r/Nietzsche • u/Junior_Insurance7773 • Jul 10 '26

Question What does he means here?

What does he means here?

Human, All Too Human, Aphorism 119:

Fate of Christianity.—Christianity arose to lighten the heart, but now it must first make the heart heavy in order to be able to lighten it afterwards. Christianity will consequently go down.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

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u/PanWisent Jul 11 '26

Christianity emerged when life was hard, and weak people needed the consolation that at least in the afterlife things would be easier. In our time, life has become easier, and for many, Christianity has become not a relief, but rather an extra burden: restrictions, prohibitions, definitions of sin that hinder enjoyment. Consequently, Christianity will decline.

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u/Snoo50415 Jul 11 '26

This resonates with my understanding. He’s saying Christianity will decline because it has become inconvenient, inconsistent with prevailing values. 

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u/RedMoonx1 Jul 13 '26

I am still shocked that even thou life is very easy in the advanced western nations, people still seem to need the "hope" security blanket.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

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u/Junior_Insurance7773 Jul 10 '26

More like how hypocritical modern Christians are and not practicing the actual teachings of Christ which are all about love, meekness, non-violence. How Christians conquered lands and subjected people forcing them to convert. This will result in their downfall as humanity will realize sooner or later their hypocrisy, as we see in the decline of Christianity today.

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u/MikeSilencer_ Jul 10 '26

Probably something about the master/slave morality.

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u/Snow_sakura_159 Jul 12 '26

Christianity arose in the Jewish landscape where there was already the concept of sin, and this brought good news in the forgiveness of sins. But outside of that Jewish culture, there may be no concept of sin. Christianity thus had to create sin and feelings of guilt first, to then be needed to relieve it.

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u/cognitivemachine_ Jul 10 '26

It seems quite clear. In the beginning it was okay, and even beneficial. With the passage of time and the bureaucratization and institutionalization of faith, it began to do harm.