#ressentiment

ressentiment is a sense of hostility directed toward an object that one identifies as the cause of one's frustration, that is, an assignment of blame for one's frustration. The sense of weakness or inferiority complex and perhaps even jealousy in the face of the "cause" generates a rejecting/justifying value system, or morality, which attacks or denies the perceived source of one's frustration.

Nietzsche’s The Antichrist: A Philosophical Conjecture

Author: @miqaelochristos-edicto © 2025 Michael Anthony Moya. Todos los derechos reservados.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s decision to title his work The Antichrist (Der Antichrist, 1895) is neither arbitrary nor merely provocative; rather, it reflects a fundamental critique of Christian morality as embodied by its institutionalized form. Central to his argument is the assertion that Christianity, as propagated by the apostle Paul, represents a radical deviation from the original spiritual ethos of Jesus of Nazareth. In Nietzsche’s view, it is Paul—not Christ—who constitutes the true Antichrist, insofar as he subverts the emancipatory essence of Jesus’ teachings and replaces them with a doctrine of submission, guilt, and ressentiment.

Nietzsche delineates a stark contrast between Jesus and the Christianity that emerged after his death. Jesus, according to Nietzsche, was a free spirit—an individual detached from dogma, tradition, and rigid structures of authority. His ethos, one of love, spontaneity, and a radical acceptance of life, was incommensurable with the codified, hierarchical, and moralizing system that Paul would later establish. In The Antichrist, Nietzsche contends that Paul’s theology distorts Jesus’ original message, transforming a lived philosophy into an ascetic doctrine predicated on sin, obedience, and the promise of an afterlife—thus negating the affirmative, life-affirming stance Nietzsche associates with authentic existence.

To Nietzsche, Paul’s influence renders Christianity not only a corruption of Jesus' life and thought but also an ideology fundamentally opposed to the will to power—the intrinsic drive towards self-overcoming and vitality. If Jesus embodied an affirmative and non-coercive relationship with existence, Paul institutionalized a doctrine of self-denial, fostering an ethic that weakens rather than strengthens humanity. In this sense, Nietzsche's designation of The Antichrist is not merely an inversion of traditional religious terminology but a deliberate philosophical statement: the true opposition to Christ is not an external force of evil, but the very theological structure that claims to speak in his name.

Glossary

Ressentiment: A term used by Nietzsche to describe a psychological state of suppressed envy and vengefulness that underlies moral systems based on weakness and victimhood.

Will to Power: A central Nietzschean concept denoting the fundamental force driving life—an instinct towards growth, expansion, and self-overcoming.

Asceticism: The practice of severe self-discipline and renunciation of worldly pleasures, which Nietzsche critiques as a negation of life.

Free Spirit: In Nietzsche’s philosophy, an individual who transcends dogma, affirms life, and resists moral constraints imposed by external authorities.