Ratzinger’s Defense of Christianity Against Nietzsche | Dr. Conor Sweeney

Christendom College Lectures

Canadian by birth, Conor Sweeney obtained a licentiate and doctorate in Sacred Theology from the John Paul Institute for Marriage and the Family in Rome. He taught and researched in areas of Evangelization, continental philosophy, the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger, and John Paul II's Theology of the Body, and much more. Dr. Sweeney joined the theology faculty in 2020 here at Christendom College.

Dr. Sweeney delivers what he calls a warmup or preparation of a class he is offering this fall semester at Christendom College, called, "Atheism and the Death of God." The key words to keep in mind during this lecture are: Eros, Moralism, the phrase "God is dead", Love, Agape, Truth and Joy. He goes into depth of what Pope Benedict XVI's response was to one of the greatest critics of Christianity of all time: Frederick Nietzsche. Nietzsche is famous for his hatred of Christianity; he calls it a capital crime against life, a religion of the herd, an expression of the will to power of a weak and resentful type of human being who is incapable of true greatness of spirit. Dr. Sweeney particularly focuses on Nietzsche's claim that "Christianity poisoned eros and turned it into a vice or something bad." According to Nietzsche, in his book, Beyond Good and Evil, "Christianity gave Eros poison to drink. He did not die of it, but degenerated into a vice." Dr. Sweeney concludes his lecture on moral truth. He says that, "Moral truth, in its fullness, is never distinct from the love of Christ poured into our hearts. Truth is not an abstraction of an idea out there, distinct from love. It is not rationalism or subjectivism. To choose love is to choose what is true, to choose the truth is to choose love. Christian love requires iron in the soul in the one who seeks to live up to the demands of it."