How to Celebrate Lent with a Hammer—part 1

Wow, I can hardly believe it’s been so long since I’ve written a blog post! My last post was written over Christmas break, and now it’s spring break—half-way through my second semester of college. I’m so glad to be back home and spending a week with my family in my own, sunny, southern state of Virginia!

Speaking of spring, today (March 9) is the first day of Lent, the period of time in the church calendar leading up to Christ’s death and resurrection. I’ve heard of Lent before and known people who have given up meat, coffee, or even chocolate for Lent, but I’ve never celebrated it. This year is going to be a little different.

Just a couple weeks ago in one of my college classes we discussed Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. But instead of telling us how wrong these philosophers were, our professor took a different approach by showing us why they thought the way they did. It was pretty cool—almost like looking inside a philosopher’s brain to see how it worked!

But my professor did something that surprised me even more. He assigned us an article to read that suggested we study a book by Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud for Lent.

What do three of the most infamous atheists in history have to do with one of the holiest events in the Christian calendar?

Well, for starters, Lent is all about repentance. The real purpose in sacrificing something for the period of Lent isn’t just to live without meat, chocolate, or coffee for a few weeks, but to lead a person to reflect upon how he or she has disrespected Christ’s perfect sacrifice by sinning. He or she can ask the Lord for forgiveness and repent by seeking to honor God instead of sinning.

Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud were “atheists of suspicion”—they disbelieved in God, not because of any scientific or philosophic evidence against Him, but because of the negative examples of His followers. As Nietzsche liked to point out, “In truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.”

By reading Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, we as Christians can see how the Church has “turned off” so many other atheists of suspicion by acting contrary to Jesus’ teachings. Jesus taught us to make peace: do we pick fights? Jesus taught us to love one another: are we grouchy—even with other Christians? Jesus taught us to live selflessly and be willing to die for the sake of another: but is that our attitude?

So, in effect, reading Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud can show us how we as individuals and as a Church have lived against Christ and showed contempt for His sacrifice. It should lead us to a repentance fitting for Lent!

I was intrigued by this idea and decided to give it a try. So I found a book by Nietzsche on Amazon (Twilight of the Idols: How to Philosophize with a Hammer and The Anti-Christ) and am going to read a little at a time until the end of Lent on April 23. My aim is to celebrate Lent “with a hammer” by doing some serious self-examination along with some serious prayer.

If you want to try this too, peruse your library or the web for books by Nietzsche, Marx, or Freud. You could also read something by Martin Luther or John Calvin—both of whom believed strongly in the sinfulness of humankind and failures of the Church. But if you don’t have time or just aren’t into something that deep yet, I’ll try to keep you updated on what I’m reading and thinking about in Nietzsche!