The German title of The Antichrist, Der Antst, translates into English as “The Anti-Christian” as well as “The Anti-Christ”, and may be a better term for its criticism of the defects of Christian dogma, which Nietzsche believes go against the grain of nature and an amoral “will to power”. Pity for the weak is central to Christian morality, but Nietzsche sees it as nihilistic and opposed to life, leading to depression and loss of vitality. He sees the reverence for a pure spirit above the tangible world of the senses as a “pure lie”, a reversal of common sense that stands the truth upside down. He finds the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant ridiculous, seeing the absurdity of abiding by any idea that cannot be proven but also cannot be refuted. He saw Christ as “the only Christian”, a powerful being in which there was no separation of God and man, and argued that Christian dogma had evolved counter to its original principles through a privileged class that catered to the resentment of the disempowered by promising a future bliss (and punishment for the oppressors) in exchange for following the faith in the here and now. Nietzsche admittedly wrote for a very limited audience that had the stomach for his harsh truth, and the tone of the book is consistently vituperative. It was written in 1988 but held for publication until 1895 due to its controversial and uncompromising criticism of religion. Shortly after its completion, Nietzsche suffered a nervous breakdown that marked the beginning of his long decline.
