The Madman: God is Dead, and We Have Killed Him

Dear Nietzsche,

I wanted to share some of my thoughts on your writing “The Madman.” I’ll start with a quote.

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Yes we did kill God. And everything that you’re saying would be true if he still remained dead after we killed him. He only died by our hands because that was in his plan of redemption, for him to suffer for us. The whole point is that we don’t need to rely on ourselves with any “festivals of atonement,” or “sacred games.” That was the atonement. It’s crazy because in actuality, the blood of our God that we want to wipe off of ourselves is the very water “for us to clean ourselves.” Maybe this is coincidence, but I’m thinking of the part in the story of the crucifixion where

the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

Friedrich, he doesn’t want us to live in shame regarding this fact. He wants us to embrace it. That’s where freedom and forgiveness are found. That’s where grace is.

And yes, I’ll say it is a mystery as to how we could kill the God of the universe. Wouldn’t we need to be gods? “Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” Well, no actually. Not if God instead chose to become a man. Man cannot kill God, but man can kill man. But Jesus is God right? Yes, but he is also man. That’s what I mean by “it is a mystery.” We were able to kill him, because he is man, but he was able to rise from the dead because he is God.

And Nietzsche, I apologize for only taking a part of your work and expounding upon it without context first. I personally hate it when people do that with the bible so I figure I should talk about your whole essay. I just found it so fascinating that the questions that you pose perfectly match the accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Now I’m not sure exactly what your goal was in writing “The Madman,” but your focus in my opinion doesn’t seem to be talking about a specific event of death such as the crucifixion of Jesus, but more about the result of humanity’s general actions: how people have killed God by ignoring him. In this you do make an interesting point. You even end your thoughts by saying

“the madman made his way into different churches on the same day, and there intoned his Requiem aeternam deo. When led out and called to account, he always gave the reply: “What are these churches now, if they are not the tombs and monuments of God?”

It’s as if you’re saying that by ignoring God and confining him only to a building or church, these chapels have become his monuments in his death. But I’d ask “How can the actions of those given life, affect the life of the life-Giver?” This reminds me of a section of Saint Paul’s speech, or “essay” if you will, to Rome in the first century:

God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

It was fun reading this work of yours in the University and I do admire the thought that you’ve put into your writing. I don’t say this to disrespect you in any way, but I just find it ironic that even though I wrote this to you, there’s no way you can you can read it. Because you yourself have died. Maybe I’ll see you in the afterlife. Maybe not. Father knows best.

Peace,

Thaddeus