Volume 20, 1998
Philosophy and Gender
Elvira Burgos
Pages 20-25
La Idea «Se Convierte En Una Mujer»
Nietzsche y el Cristianismo
The starting point for the reflection carried out in this essay is part of Nietzsche's «Story of an Error», contained in Twilight of Idols. The essay will make use of other texts by the philosopher which also link Christianity and the woman, more specifically the contrast between the myth of Prometheus and that of the original sin, which he mentions in Birth of Tragedy. In a first reading, the essay discusses the criticism that relates both Chistianity and the woman, together with the philosophical implications suggested by such a relationship. In a second reading, it traces in Nietzsche a criticism of Christianity's tendency to use the woman and the feminine in a biased fashion. According to this second notion, which the essay posits as the richest and most interesting interpretation, Nietzsche's thought, in its denunciation of Christianity through the woman, foreshadows a new course for humankind which is neither essentialist nor inmutable.