the good German Lutheran
Here's a joke:One day the Pope is having a quiet conversation with a German theologian in one of the rooms of the Vatican. Suddenly two French archaeologists burst in, very agitated and nervous, and they tell the Holy Father they have just got back from Israel with some very good news and some rather bad news. The Pope beseeches them to come out with it, and not to leave him in suspense. Talking over each other, the Frenchmen say the good news is they have discovered the Holy Sepulchre. The Holy Sepulchre? says the Pope. The Holy Sepulchre. Not a shadow of a doubt. The Pope is moved to tears. What's the bad news? he asks, drying his eyes. Well, inside the Holy Sepulchre we found the body of Christ. The Pope passes out. The Frenchmen rush to his side and fan his face. The only one who is calm is the German theologian, and he says: Ah, so Jesus really existed? --Roberto Bolano
I really love that joke, especially being a doubter of German descent myself. I remeber how overjoyed I was to read Nietzsche as a teenager: here was a Lutheran minister's son saying things I had felt but couldn't say. It felt so liberating.
Now I'm wondering how liberating it actually was. Thinking about Nietzsche now, I am of the opinion that he never stopped reacting to Christianity. He still felt so strongly about it that one of the last books he wrote was a point by point refutation of Christianity, The Antichrist. Perhaps that he never freed himself is one of the reasons why he went mad.
The other night I had a bitter quarrell with Tupa. In her anger, she pointed out that I was always into some religious idea or another. She deprecatingly called it my self-help. Once I was over being angry, it did seem to make sense. Growing up in an ultra-religious community, I was in a constant dialogue with religion, and I think I felt subconciously all these years that I couldn't be a good person without it. I've tried all kinds of different religions, although I still feel that buddhism suits me best. But have i ever tried seriously to do without religion? I have to admit that the answer is no. Now that I'm in England, I don't have to have a dialogue if I don't want to. I think maybe it's time to drop religion for a while. I have spent so much energy on it, and a good deal of it seems wasted. I have enough junk to sort in my mind; do I really need to tackle this huge question right now? The logical answer is no. So for now it is dropped, I'll let you know if anything emerges....
posted by moor-rambler @ 5:02 AM
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