Nietzsche The Madman Analysis

The author Friedrich Nietzsche in his text (“The Madman”, 1882) used a narrative to prove a point. To be more specific he wanted to show or demonstrate to people how bad was the status of religion and of faith in Europe around his time (1882-1887) the time when he was publishing “The Gay Science”. The story started with a man who is described as a “madman”. The madman begins by entering a marketplace and starts to shout loudly “I seek God! I seek God!” He then encounters a group of people in the marketplace who start to mock him and laugh loudly until he proclaims that “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?” The questions then arises as to what kind of message …show more content…
On the contrary, the concept of God cannot be completely dead in all the minds or the hearts of people. The statement of “God is dead” may perhaps be seen to a certain extent mad, particularly in a world and society that is profoundly dependent on religion as a justification and a way of living. Additionally, “The assumption that we live in a secularized world is false: The world today, with some exceptions, is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever." (Berger, Page #1). Here the author of (“Secularism in Retreat”, 1996) Peter Berger, is in disagreement with Nietzsche’s ideas and states that the assumption of the decline of religion is incorrect. Berger disagrees about the fact that modernization essentially leads to the decline of religion and that the secularization theory is often linked to enlightenment. In spite of modernization having some effects of secularization in some places more than others. Places such as the West. Modernization has also provoked powerful movement of counter-secularization. In addition, secularization can occur on two separate levels: one on the individual awareness level and the other occurs on the level of society. Many religious institutes lost their power or influence within the public sphere. For example, the percentages of people going to churches declined from 40% in 1858 to 7% in 2005, (Lecture, 15, Feb.). Yet, religious beliefs both old and new are still sustained in the lives of many people. Sometimes by taking different new kinds of influential forms and it may lead sometimes to great religious upsurges. In addition those religiously-recognized establishments or organizations can still take a part socially or politically. Even if only few citizens still believe in what these institutions