In the world of philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche is considered to be one of the great agnostics. In his books Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ, Nietzsche puts himself adamantly against not only Christianity, but the ideas of faith and morality as well. This, naturally, has led many to conclude that Nietzsche was dead set against all ideas of religion. This, however, is not the case. In fact, I’d argue that Nietzsche’s philosophy fits comfortably in the pantheist tradition.

What is Pantheism?

Put simply, pantheism is essentially the belief that everything is God, or that the universe itself has the character of the divine. As Paul Harrison points out, there are many different varieties of this particular belief. In this paper, the pantheism under consideration is, using Harrison’s definitions, world-affirming, world-believing, monistic pantheism. By world affirming, it is meant that “the physical world of nature and of the human body are essentially good.” By world believing, it is meant that the material universe has a certain existence and is not simply illusion. By monistic, it is meant that “there is only a single type of substance in the universe. Matter/energy is usually the one substance, since this is the one we can all perceive.” In essence, this religious idea is that there is a fundamental connection between all matter, energy and life, and that this aspect of the universe is divine.

This idea of pantheism has several consequences. The first and most obvious is the rejection of a personal God, indeed of any God that exists separately from humanity or the universe. Another consequence of this notion of pantheism is the notion of the interconnectedness of all things, and that this fundamental interconnectedness is divine—thus the Universe is God. Since this philosophy is world affirming, it also sees humans as being in their appropriate place in the world, and thus it rejects the notion of an afterlife or separate reality. Also, since this philosophy is world believing, or in other words, empirical, there is no necessary contradiction between science and God. Indeed, science can be seen as a sort of pure reflection on divinity, since the study of the universe is also the study of God.

Would Nietzsche Accept Any Religion?

Now that pantheism has been defined and it’s attributes explored, the question remains—is Nietzsche’s philosophy compatible with pantheism? In order to answer this question, it must first be ascertained whether or not Nietzsche’s philosophy is compatible with any religion, or if he rejects religion on face. In The Anti-Christ, Nietzsche clearly states that he is not opposed to religion at all, but rather he has a specific opposition towards the Judeo-Christian tradition. For instance, he speaks quite positively stating that “Buddhism is a religion for late human beings…it leads them back to peace and cheerfulness, to an ordered diet in intellectual things, to a certain physical hardening.” Also, he states in the same book that some religion can be a positive thing.

This does not mean, though, that he accepts our modern idea of an omnibenevolent God. In The Anti-Christ, Nietzsche clearly rejects this idea when he points out that “a God must be able to be both useful and harmful, both friend and foe—he is admired in good and bad alike.” This idea of God as containing both good and evil can also be interpreted as a pantheistic one—since the universe contains both good and evil, and God is the universe, then God too must contain both good and bad.

Does Nietzsche Reject A Personal God?

As Nietzsche clearly has no objection to religion in and of itself, we must then examine whether or not Nietzsche rejected the idea of a personal God—a God separate from humanity and the universe. In The Anti-Christ, Nietzsche clearly rejects this notion of God. This is made apparent when he is discussing what he believed was Jesus’ true philosophy. For example, he writes “For Jesus had done away with the concept ‘guilt’ itself—he had denied any chasm between God and man, he lived this unity of God and man as his ‘glad tidings’.” A similar pantheist bent is given to Jesus’ philosophy on, where Nietzsche writes

“The ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is a condition of the heart—not something that comes ‘upon the earth’ or ‘after death’…The ‘Kingdom of God’ is not something one waits for; it has no yesterday or tomorrow, it does not come ‘in a thousand years’—it is an experience within a heart; it is everywhere, it is nowhere…”

It is important to note that Nietzsche did not reject the philosophy of Jesus. Instead, he directs his criticism at the Church, whom he claims perverted Jesus’ philosophy (a charge he shares with Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and, of course, Joseph Smith). Indeed, throughout The Anti-Christ, Nietzsche speaks quite highly of Jesus’ “new way of living.” From the statements quoted above, it is clear that Nietzsche agreed with, or at the very least, had sympathy with, the idea that there is no separation of the divine and the human. Clearly, too, he rejects the idea of a personal God as stated by Christianity because it is opposed to nature. He writes,

“The Christian conception of God—God as God of the sick, God as spider, God as spirit—is one of the most corrupt conceptions of God arrived at on earth…God degenerated to the contradiction of life, instead of being its transfiguration and eternal Yes!”

Clearly, Nietzsche’s idea of God is a God of life, a non-spiritual God, and a God of nature.

Nietzsche and the Interconnectedness of All Things

The second consequence of pantheism, that there is a fundamental interconnectedness of things, and that this connection has a divinity to it, is also compatible with Nietzsche’s philosophy. Nietzsche had no notion of humanity being separate or having any unique place in the universe. As he writes in The Anti-Christ, “Man is absolutely not the crown of creation: every creature stands beside him at the same stage of perfection:…” This statement, at the very least shows that Nietzsche has no objection to humans being on an equal plane as nature. However, Nietzsche also had a clear notion of the interconnectedness of things. As he wrote in Twilight of the Idols,

“One is necessary, one is a piece of fate, one belongs to the whole, one is in the whole—there exists nothing which could judge, measure, compare, condemn the whole….But nothing exists apart from the whole!—That no one is any longer made accountable, that the kind of being manifested cannot be traced back to a causa prima, that the world is a unity neither as sensorium nor as ‘spirit’, this alone is the great liberation.“

From this statement one can garner a true sense that Nietzsche saw the world, not as the effect of a “first cause” (namely, a creator God), but rather as a unified thing. Nietzsche can also be interpreted of advocating a sort of interconnectedness in his autobiography, Ecce Homo, when he refers to himself as being related to Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. While this statement seems odd when taken literally, it makes a good deal of sense when one thinks of a fundamental connection between all things. If such a connection exists, then a person could truly think of himself as a descendent of Alexander or Caesar in the sense of that fundamental connection. Nietzsche’s ideas about unity and connectedness are of obvious compatibility with pantheistic belief.

Nietzsche and World-Affirmation

Nietzsche’s philosophy is also extremely compatible with world-affirmation, the idea that the universe, and not the afterlife or an Ideal reality is the appropriate place for humans. In the Anti-Christ, much of Nietzsche’s criticism of Christianity is aimed at its concept of Eternal Life. As he writes,

“If one shifts the center of gravity of life out of life into the ‘Beyond’—into nothingness—one has deprived life as such of its center of gravity. The great lie of personal immortality destroys all rationality, all naturalness of instinct—all that is salutary, all that is life-furthering…So to live that there is no longer any meaning in living: that now becomes the ‘meaning’ of life.”

Clearly, Nietzsche’s philosophy is compatible to world affirmation in the denial of the afterlife. His philosophy also rejects the notion of an ideal world that exists apart from this one. He clearly attacks the Kantian division of the real and apparent worlds (the reality perceived by our senses, according to Kant, is the apparent world, while the true reality exists outside of perception) in Twilight of the Idols, where he writes “The ‘apparent’ world is the only one: the ‘real’ world has only been lyingly added.” Again, by rejecting any world apart from the one we perceive, Nietzsche’s philosophy is clearly world affirming.

Nietzsche and Empiricism

Finally, Nietzsche’s philosophy can clearly be shown to be world believing and empirical. His firm belief in material reality and science is clear in most of his works, and his words ring in The Anti-Christ, where he writes “One should not let oneself be misled: great intellects are sceptics. Zarathustra is a sceptic. The vigour of a mind, its freedom through strength and superior strength, is proved by scepticism.” This statement clearly shows that Nietzsche rejects the idea of faith that permeates most religions. This rejection of faith is shown even more clearly where he writes

“That under certain conditions belief makes blessed, that blessedness does not turn an idee fixe into a true idea, that faith moves no mountains but surely places mountains where there are none: a fleeting visit to a madhouse will provide ample enlightenment on these things.”

Also, in The Anti-Christ, he criticizes Christianity for its rejection of science. He begins his analysis by pointing out that the Genesis story is “the story of God’s mortal terror of science.” When humans ate of the fruit of knowledge, they became a rival to God. This is because to Nietzsche, “science makes equal to God—it is all over with priests and gods if man becomes scientific!” This statement is an interesting one for several reasons. For one, it is clear that Nietzsche is a defender of empirical reality and using science as a means of understanding the universe. Moreover, he states that science makes humans equal to God, which can certainly be interpreted in a pantheistic light. Since God is the universe, and science is the means of understanding the universe, then science becomes the key to understanding God. By the same token, there must by necessity be enmity between science and religions that demand faith. To Nietzsche, this is because the God of religions of faith is divorced from reality. As he writes in The Anti-Christ,

“Once the concept ‘nature’ had been devised as the concept antithetical to ‘God’, ‘natural’ had to be the word for ‘reprehensible’—this entire fictional world has its roots in hatred of the natural (–actuality!–), it is the expression of a profound discontent with the actual.”

Through all of these statements, Nietzsche shows his belief in empirical reality and his acceptance of science as the means of understanding it. In this aspect of his philosophy he is also compatible with pantheistic thought.

Conclusion

An examination of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy definitely indicates that while he clearly rejects the idea of a separate, personal God, he does show some common threads of thinking with pantheists. In astonishingly beautiful language he describes the divinity residing inside of humanity. His philosophy also shows acceptance of an idea of a fundamental connectedness between all things. His work is also extremely world and life affirming, and shows a tremendous belief in science and an empirical reality. While Nietzsche may not have considered himself such, his philosophy is definitely in line with modern notions of pantheism.