Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
I: Criticism of Religion§236 A. In proportion as Christianity seems necessary to-day, man is still wild and fatal –. B. In another sense, it is not necessary, but extremely dangerous, though it is captivating and seductive, because it corresponds with the morbid character of whole classes and types of modern humanity — they simply follow their inclinations when they aspire to Christianity; they are decadents of all kinds.
A and B must be kept very sharply apart.
In the case of A, Christianity is a cure, or at least a taming process (under certain circumstances it serves the purpose of making people ill: and this is sometimes useful as a means of subduing savage and brutal natures). In the case of B, it is a symptom of illness itself, it renders the state of decadence more acute; in this case it stands opposed to a corroborating system of treatment, it is the invalid’s instinct standing against that which would be most salutary to him.