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Saying Amen to the Light of Dawn: Nietzsche on Praise, Prayer, and Affirmation
Södertörn University, School of Culture and Education, Philosophy. (Filosofi)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3210-4712
2019 (English)In: Nietzsche-Studien, ISSN 0342-1422, E-ISSN 1613-0790, Vol. 48, no 1, p. 99-116Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The article addresses the role and meaning of prayer and the language of piety and praise in Nietzsche’s writings, notably in Zarathustra. Nietzsche can be read as an uncompromising critic of religion, but also as the initiator of a new form of faith, by some scholars even described as a “Dionysian piety”. The analysis takes its lead from how Zarathustra refers to his yes-saying as also saying ”amen”, exploring how Nietzsche explicitly incorporates the language of religious discourse in his writing. Examining passages where he explicitly questions the adoption of confessional language and prayer, it also criticizes as overly simplistic the view of his thinking as seeking a new piety. Through a discussion of the significance of prayer from a both a psychological and linguistic perspectives, it highlights the experience of “inspiration” as a key to the adoption of confessional language in Zarathustra. In an interpretation of the last part of this book it shows how its concluding scenes coalesce precisely around the role and possibility of prayer and piety, and how a crisis in the narrative is triggered by the inability of Zarathustra’s visitors to properly understand his message in this regard. A concluding interpretation of the section ”Vor Sonnen-Aufgang” in the third part of the book shows how it gathers the philosophical stakes involved in Nietzsche’s understanding of prayer and faith.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2019. Vol. 48, no 1, p. 99-116
Keywords [en]
Prayer, Religion, Affirmation, Inspiration, Zarathustra, Dionysus, Sun
National Category
Philosophy, Ethics and Religion
Research subject
Critical and Cultural Theory
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-39398DOI: 10.1515/nietzstu-2019-0007Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85076285266OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-39398DiVA, id: diva2:1370679
Available from: 2019-11-16 Created: 2019-11-16 Last updated: 2020-06-30Bibliographically approved

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Ruin, Hans

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf