Contesting Spirit: Nietzsche, Affirmation, Religion [Paperback]

Tyler T. Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 1998

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Carefully researched and tightly argued, this volume contributes substantially to our understanding of the secularization of the curricula at colleges and universities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and merits the thoughtful consideration of those concerned with the place of religion in higher education. (Bradley Longfield The Journal of American History )

About the Author

Tyler T. Roberts is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Grinnell College. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (October 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691001278
• ISBN-13: 978-0691001272
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,453,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Must read for alternative perspectives on the religious life, October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Contesting Spirit: Nietzsche, Affirmation, Religion (Paperback)

This book is a must read for anyone who wishes to consider the "religious life" in a "non-traditional/post-foundationalist" sense. Roberts argues, and rightly so, that Nietzsche raises profound questions regarding the nature of religion and the uses of traditional religious language/metaphor. Further, in his discussion Roberts brings to light the significance of Nietzsche's (unexpectedly) ascetic life style. My only hesitancy is that Roberts seems to stop short of arguing that Nietzsche was indeed a deeply religious thinker. I believe this stronger argument could have been made, though the author limits himself with the less ambitious aim of using Nietzsche to raise questions about what we mean by "religion." My rating = 4.5 stars.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, great book on Nietzsche and Christianity, September 23, 2003

By 

Steve Lewis (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contesting Spirit (Hardcover)

I've been reading Nietzsche for almost 10 years, and this is one of two secondary sources that I keep close to me when thinking about Nietzsche. Tyler Roberts is dead on in examining Nietzsche's critique of Christianity, religion, and asceticism. It shows just how "religious" Nietzsche was, not to undermine his critique of Christianity, but to show in what ways it is accurate, and in what ways Nietzsche was wrong.

This book really opens up a space for a Christian to read Nietzsche and pull out some of his deeply emotional/spiritual gems while understanding that Nietzsche doesn't have a full picture of Christianity.