Nietzsche's the Anti-Christ - (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Nietzsche) by Paul Bishop (Paperback)

About the Book

Presupposing no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the text, nor with Christian beliefs or doctrines, Paul Bishop carefully guides students through The Anti-Christ section by section. Bishop unpacks the difficulties that many readers face when dealing with Nietzsche's rhetoric.

Book Synopsis

The Anti-Christ is one of the most notorious, if not the most notorious, books by Nietzsche - and one of his most frequently misrepresented. Presupposing no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the text, nor with Christian beliefs or doctrines, Paul Bishop carefully guides students through The Anti-Christ section by section. Bishop unpacks the difficulties that many readers face when dealing with Nietzsche's rhetoric. And he contextualises the text within the wider contexts of Nietzsche's thought as a whole and the broader currents of contemporary 19th and 20th century thought. Student resources include a chronology of Nietzsche's life and work, a glossary of key terms, an index of names and subjects and a guide to further reading.

From the Back Cover

A critical introduction and interpretation of one of Nietzsche's last works The Anti-Christ, although written in 1888, was not published until 1895. It is one of the most notorious, if not the most notorious, books by Nietzsche -- and one of his most frequently misrepresented. The main cause for scandal has been its expression of a virulent anti-religious and specifically anti-Christian stance. Precisely this aspect makes a reconsideration of this work timely, not to say urgent. Presupposing no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the text, nor assuming you are familiar with Christian beliefs or doctrines, Paul Bishop contextualises The Anti-Christ within Nietzsche's work as a whole and carefully guides you through some of the difficulties dealing with Nietzsche's rhetoric. Paul Bishop is William Jacks Chair of Modern Languages in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow.

Review Quotes

In this insightful critical guide, Paul Bishop develops an admirably clear and incisive analysis of Nietzsche's The Anti-Christ, arguing that we should treat philology as its central theme. Bishop considers how Nietzsche raises and responds to problems of secularism and post-secularism in the text, and contends that The Anti-Christ, while still controversial today, has never been more timely and relevant. Bishop superbly demonstrates the continuing relevance of Nietzsche and philology by connecting Nietzsche's own philological concerns in The Anti-Christ to diverse religious traditions and histories, as well as to pressing current issues such as climate change, global financial and health crises, and transhumanism. Bishop's argument is supported by careful and discerning scholarly attention to Nietzsche's texts, and to scholarship on Nietzsche and religion.-- "Rebecca Bamford, Queen's University Belfast"

About the Author

Paul Bishop is William Jacks Chair of Modern Languages in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow. His research examines the history of ideas with a particular interest in the reception of Nietzsche in the fields of psychoanalysis, analytical psychology, and Lebensphilosophie. His previous publications include German Political Thought and the Discourse of Platonism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Ludwig Klages and the Philosophy of Life (Routledge, 2017), On the Blissful Islands with Nietzsche & Jung (Routledge, 2017) and, as editor A Companion to Friedrich Nietzsche, Life and Works (Camden House, 2012).