David Strauss: The Confessor and the Writer

Strauss had been a preacher but had renounced the cloth and set up shop as a critic of Christianity. He had labored with good intentions no doubt but the net result of all his smug agnosticism was that his disciples were as self-satisfied bigoted and prejudiced in the garb of agnostics as they had been before as Christians. Nietzsches clear eye saw this and in the first of his little pamphlets David Strauss der Bekenner and der Schriftsteller he bore down upon Strauss bourgeoise pseudo-skepticism most savagely. Regarded as one of the most profound German philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is popularly considered a cultural critic and philologist whose work exerted a scholarly influence on modern intellectual history. His intellectual works focus on widespread themes such as religion morality philosophy and science. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth a genealogical criticism of religion and Christian morality. His body of work touched a wide range of topics including art philology history music tragedy and culture most of which drew inspiration from Greek tragedy.