Original scientific paper
The Contribution of the Thought of Friedrich Nietzsche to the Understanding of Nihilism of Postmodernism and its Attitudes towards Christianity
Mladen Milić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Đakovo, Croatia
Abstract
This paper presents the idea of nihilism as a reality perspective in the philosophy of Nietzsche, the analysis of a postmodern situation and the possible answers to this situation. This philosopher with his unsystematic thinking, as well as with his life, became one of the leading, most consistent thinkers whose analysis predicted the modern situation in the spiritual life and the period of postmodernism. Besides warning us about the ideological and ontological crisis, Nietzsche's nihilism warns us also about the crisis of our times. In the postmodern world, we can see on the one side the imperfection, but on the other side nihilism which we cannot overcome. Within these frameworks, Nietzsche's philosophy in spite of not being sufficient and not offering us any solution could help us to understand, rethink and overcome the postmodern reality. One of the ways could be to study Nietzsche's attitude toward Christianity and its basic ideas. The paper presents the Nietzsche's nihilism and the still present reality of his thoughts, as well as the analysis of his nihilistic philosophy, based on G. Vattimo's approach. The paper also questions the nihilistic postmodernism and in the last chapter and in the conclusion, the paper discusses to what extent Nietzsche's philosophy helps us to understand the relationship between Christianity and postmodern society and presents the Christian attitude toward postmodernism. In order to describe this Christian attitude, Nietzsche's philosophy can be of great help.
Keywords
Friedrich Nietzsche; nihilism; postmodernism; God; Christianity
Hrčak ID:
93655
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2012.
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