The Lenten Nietzsche

On the Afterworldly (a reading from Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra) How is Heaven like a hospital? It is the place where the sick go to get well when they die. Such a terrible thing to say! The sick are supposed to be healed and free from illness when they go to Heaven. But this is

It is Easter. If there ever was an apocalyptic day, this is it. (The weather here in Brooklyn is absolutely gorgeous, by the way). Easter is confusing. It is unsettling. And if you dwell on it for long enough, it can reduce you to tears. What does it mean to even claim that God has

From Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science: The madman.—Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!"—As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter.

On the Despisers of the Body (The Reading) In the season of Lent, it is customary to give up something of personal worth. Traditionally, this has been the giving up of meat. Some people, from dawn to dusk, give up eating entirely, believing that the fast shall offer spiritual insight. Nietzsche has no time for

The Academic Chairs of Virtue (Today's Reading) What is virtue? Does anyone know anymore? Socrates, in Meno, attempts to define it and cannot. He determines that it is recollected by the soul rather than taught by an instructor. Arete, excellence - this is the Greek word for virtue. And what is the difference between virtue, itself, and