The Antichrist

Nietzsche contrasts Christianity with Buddhism—which he calls “the only genuinely positive religion to be encountered in history” (27).

He claims that while both Christianity and Buddhism are religions of décadence, Buddhism is superior:

1)  Buddhism abandons the concept of “gods” altogether,

2)  abandons self-deception in moral concepts,

3)  yields to reality by replacing the struggle against the inherent evil of humanity with the struggle against humanity’s suffering,

4)  understands, like Nietzsche, that goodness is whatever is positive to life, rather than an end in itself,

5)  and promotes egoism as natural.

While Nietzsche believes Buddhism is as much a nihilistic religion as Christianity, he has no desire to insult it in his comparative analysis.

Nietzsche describes Buddhism as stemming from the philosophical elite, viewing its own idea of “perfection” as fully attainable by mortals.

By contrast, Christianity stems from the “lowest” individuals, glorifying grotesquery and self-loathing.

Nietzsche argues that Christianity is a religion that ultimately seeks to tame “beasts of prey” (i.e., the Hyperboreans and those capable of becoming like them) and subjugate them within the masses of lower individuals (29).

By contrast, Buddhism applies itself to a society already civilized by advanced philosophy and seeks to bring it to completion. Here, Nietzsche deliberately describes Europe as “not yet civilized” (29).