At a somewhat later time in her life, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) also did not successfully fight off the powerful forces of mourning and eventually committed suicide. For a perceptive account of her struggle with mourning throughout her life, see Theodore Koulouris's book Hellenism and Loss in the Work of Virginia Woolf (2011). The inability to mourn in a healthy way is a serious handicap in life, to put it mildly.
So Nietzsche was in the midst of dealing with the powerful forces of mourning his loss as he was going through a mid-life crisis and working on his puzzling book. Out of the depths of his mourning emerged this puzzling book.
In his book Nietzsche portrays Zarathustra as a prophet. Indeed, the semi-legendary figure Zarathustra (also known as Zoroaster), was a prophet -- and the founder of the Zoroastrian religion. In addition to being trained professionally in classical philology, Nietzsche also studied ancient Persian, the language used in the scriptures of the Zoroastrian religion. (Ancient Persia is today's Iran.)
But above and beyond Nietzsche's portrayal of Zarathustra as a prophet, Nietzsche's book has been considered to be prophetic. I guess we should say that it is fitting for Nietzsche's portrayal of a prophet figure to be prophetic.
Arguably the most prophetic aspect of Nietzsche's book is the idea of the Zarathustra-type person -- the prophetic-type person who speaks out for a transvaluation of values beyond the conventional ways of understanding the world.
In my lifetime, such prophets would include Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003), Anthony de Mello, S.J. (1931-1987), especially in his posthumously published book The Way to Love (reissued 2012), Bernard Lonergan, S.J. (1904-1984), most notably in his book Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (1992), and Martha C. Nussbaum (born 1947), among others.
At times, many of the feminist scholars engaged in historical studies of patriarchy strike me as Zarathustra-type persons in spirit. But I have to admit that at times some of them seem to me to throw out the baby with the bath water.
However, long before contemporary feminist scholars started deconstructing patriarchy in Western culture, the famous Renaissance scholar Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) wrote his posthumously published book The Greeks and Greek Civilization (1998). In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, we Americans should give credit to German scholars such as Burckhardt and their pioneering scholarship.
POPE FRANCIS REPRESENTS THE REARGUARD
Because I have listed three Jesuit priests as recent exemplars of the Zarathustra-type person, some people might jump to the mistaken conclusion that the Overhuman proclaimed by Zarathustra in Nietzsche's book is on the brink of emerging among Roman Catholics today.
But on the side of patriarchy today, we have Pope Francis and the other Roman Catholic bishops with their superstitions about their Tradition of thought (Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York says that Tradition should be capitalized) -- and Rush Limbaugh and the Koch brothers and the other movement conservatives in the United States today. (Disclosure: I come from a Roman Catholic background. However, for many years now, I have not been a practicing Catholic. I am a theistic humanist, as distinct from a secular humanist.)
Traditionally, Roman Catholic bishops bring up the rear in formal processions. This supposedly symbolizes that they are the servants of the Roman Catholic servants of God.
Today, however, Pope Francis and the other bishops are bringing up the rear among of the old-fashioned patriarchy -- they are the backward-looking rearguard -- they look back with nostalgia on the "good old days" of male patriarchy
In my estimate, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope ever, does not represent the Zarathustra-type person. Instead, he represents old-fashioned male patriarchy. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has recently nailed him and his administration in her column titled "With Malice Toward Nuns" (dated May 10, 2014).
Pope Francis and his administration are giving certain American women religious a hard time for being interested in conscious evolution.
So the American women religious need to become Zarathustra-type persons and stand up to Pope Francis and his administration.
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