Ressentiment

Ressentiment Synopsis

This monograph constitutes a response to the criticisms of Christianity outlined in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, in which Nietzsche argues that Christianity is a 'slave revolt' of the weak-an attempt by the impotent to bring down the vitality of the capable nobility. Scheler's response is multi-faceted but centers on Nietzsche's failure to understand the nature of Christian love. Christianity is not a destructive enterprise trying to bring everyone down to the same low level of its impotent faithful, who must put their trust in the next world because they can get nowhere in this one.

Rather, it attempts constructively to bring everyone up to a new level of human flourishing. Christianity's preoccupation with the poor, weak, and marginalized stems from a recognition, through divine love, of the miracle of God's creation and infinite possibilities present even in them.