When dealing with Nietzsche, we face a paradox. On the one hand, the scope of Nietzsche’s influence can hardly be overestimated. On the other hand, there is no consensus as to what the essence of his legacy is. The only consensus among Nietzsche scholars is this: there is no essential Nietzsche.

The research project presented here challenges this view. It holds that the rampant Nietzscheanism in postmodern discourse is to a large degree precisely the kind of nihilism, which Nietzsche saw as the emerging disease of Western civilization. The apparent contradiction has its root in the fact that Nietzsche himself was caught in a contradiction. If one interprets Nietzsche in light of that contradiction the ambiguities in Nietzsche’s philosophy appear as resulting from a very systematic line of thought. Nietzsche’s contradiction is rooted in his ambivalent relation to Christianity. For Nietzsche, in order to overcome Christianity, applies concepts which he derives from central Christian tenets. Nietzsche is such an essentially Christian event that he can only be understood from within Christian tradition. This is the point where present-day Nietzscheanism misses Nietzsche.

Nietzsche’s assault on Christianity has spearheaded a radical transformation of the religious landscape in Europe. Nietzschean Europe has entered a post-Christian era. But again, the current view of Nietzsche cannot grasp the significance of this paradigm shift. Nietzsche’s anti-Christian philosophy is still Christian enough as to affect Judaism. Except that Nietzsche, following the logic of his strategy, turned Jewish-Christian relations upside down. He claimed that Christianity is not the antithesis to Judaism, but rather Judaism raised to higher power. This unprecedented move has found even less attention than Nietzsche’s anti-Christian strategy. If Christianity is to be overcome, and if Christianity is seen as the Jewish essence raised to higher power, it follows that Judaism is also targeted. This is not to say that Nietzsche was a proto-Nazi. But it is to say that Nietzsche is a key to understand the underlying dynamic of modern anti-Semitism, and how that relates to the transformation of the religious landscape in Europe.