Nietzsche's Influence On Religion

The death of God in Nietzsche’s Madman does not refer to Christ’s physical death, rather, this death refers to the fall of the Christendom – a society whose social-political structure and morals are rooted in Christianity. The madman’s screams incriminating society for the death of God point to a divorce between society and Christianity that has stemmed from the cultural drift away from the belief in God. Modernity, science, and the ideals that have followed them have effectively broken the foundation of society’s belief in Christianity as a whole. As the madman makes his radical claims in the marketplace, many atheists who witness his outbreak laugh at him simply because he had “come too early" (Nietzsche 120). Primarily targeted towards atheists,
According to Robert Jenson, in his book, A Theology in Outline: Can These Bones Live, during the time of the Christendom, different social developments had to establish their plausibility with respect to the teachings of the gospel and theology first. However, now, there is a tendency that is held by many that the gospel and theology itself must establish its plausibility to the world by first securing a place within broader mainstream culture. Before, Christian ideals were assumed and all other ideas about morality, reason, and meaning stemmed from it. Now, these previously assumed and proven Christian ideals, which stemmed from the gospel, cannot stand the criticisms of the modern development of the historical-critical method that employs an extreme skepticism to uncover what may have really happened. One of Nietzsche’s central criticisms stem from the fact that society was clinging to Christianity as its source of morality even though it had drifted far away from it. This clinging on to old ideals despite the metaphorical death of God, has proven itself in todays society, particularly with younger generations. Younger generations have moved away from traditional Christianity, while clinging on to a faded version of its ideals through a subscription to the modern development of moral therapeutic deism. Moral therapeutic deism, as highlighted in the book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, is a combination of moral beliefs that are not exclusive to a single major world religion that constitute the common religious beliefs of American youth. This belief system is a manifestation of a faded form of Christianity that actualizes itself in today’s society. Based on my experience, if I were to ask a group of students today if they were religious, I hypothesize that I would get a significant number of answers that