Nietzsche at the Deathbed: the Eternal Recurrence as a Counter to the ‘Preaching of Death’
In recent scholarship, the dominant reading of Nietzsche’s concept of the eternal recurrence has been as a thought experiment. This paper responds to this in two ways. First, this paper relocates eternal recurrence in the context of Nietzsche’s abiding concern with the ‘preaching of death’, a powerf...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Heythrop journal
Year: 2025, Volume: 66, Issue: 6, Pages: 623-640 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In recent scholarship, the dominant reading of Nietzsche’s concept of the eternal recurrence has been as a thought experiment. This paper responds to this in two ways. First, this paper relocates eternal recurrence in the context of Nietzsche’s abiding concern with the ‘preaching of death’, a powerful, life-negating weapon of the ascetic priest. Second, it presents it as a reality Nietzsche believed himself to have encountered through a ‘mystical’ experience. Zarathustra functions as Nietzsche’s ‘proof’ of this experience. ‘The heaviest weight’ section is equivalent to the priest’s examen; an introspective and challenging exercise which applies a ‘graced perspective’ to one’s life. This is a cosmological reading of eternal recurrence, however, it re-classifies Nietzsche’s scientific ‘proofs’ for the doctrine as exercises of fides quaerens intellectum. Whilst this interpretation makes Nietzsche’s doctrine more esoteric, it is textually grounded, and strongly accords with Nietzsche’s mature project of overcoming the priest’s historic influence. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-2265 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Heythrop journal
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/heyj.70010 |
