Nietzsche's God Is Dead

Modernity came about to better analyze and understanding specific, broader cultural changes that have come about in certain historical eras and to determine their significance and meaning. There are nine characteristics of modernity including: primacy in reason, hope in progress, science and technological innovation, industrialization, urbanization, mass media, mass culture, secularization, and the rise of representative democracies. The concept of modernity is the striving of an individual to free themselves from all externalities, including social norms, expectations, and especially religion. It is not God or nature which can allow for this emancipation, but rather it is human will alone. Nietzsche, Freud, and Jung spent their careers building

His novel, God is Dead, which addressed this “problem of modernity”, was first published in 1882, stirring up much controversy in society. In Nietzsche’s novel, the Madman announces, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” This quote is not attempting to enforce the idea that a divine, all-powerful being, which governs human nature, has physically died, but rather that this being failed to be in existence in the beginning. Humans used language to construct this image of God, an unknowable being, in an attempt to relate to Him. In fact, in their effort to try to hold on to and create God, Christians have unknowingly created an idol, instead of worshipping the true metaphysical God. Because of this internal, universal need to create a God, Christianity is “always beset by the temptation to be satisfied with its static gazes at God rather than the active life that discipleship” (Hovey, 142). All thought, knowledge, and experience is temporary, so Nietzsche’s bold declaration was presented as an invitation for individuals to reevaluate their lives and find new meaning in them. Through the process of self-examination, humans are able to free themselves from the convictions of modern society and create new meaning. Should one be able to completely overcome themselves, they might be able to make the leap into