“Amor Fati”
is a Latin phrase that means love of fate,
wherein loss and suffering are to be accepted and considered as good or
necessary facts of life. None of us are immune to pain. The Amor Fati of the Nietzschean
consideration advises a love of one’s fate even in pain albeit without
God.
On the
contrary, God does not assure Christians of a painless life. Instead the Bible
teaches us to live in Christ to gain the
peace that transcends all understanding, which enables us to live successfully through
pain.
The objective of this article is not
to extensively dissect the Amor Fati of the Nietzschean consideration. Basic concepts of Amor Fati will be emphasized to motivate an adequate
Christian response. Furthermore, a basic flaw in the atheistic consideration of Amor Fati will be identified.
Nietzsche’s Amor Fati
Amor Fati
was glorified by the atheist German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who
considered “love of fate” as essentially important for life. Nietzsche referred
to Amor Fati as:1
“…formula
for greatness in human being” (Ecce Homo, 258)
“…his
inmost nature” (Ecce Homo, 325)
“…the
highest state a philosopher can attain” (Will to Power, 1041)
In its
existential outworking, those subscribing to Amor Fati would believe that
everything happens for a purpose. They are to love that which has happened to
them. This essentially translates to accepting, interpreting and activating
fate as a positive purpose for life. Nietzsche expressed this as, “My formula
for greatness in a human being is amor fati. That one wants nothing to be
different, not forward, not backwards, not in all eternity. Not merely bear
what is necessary, still less conceal it…but love it.”
Nietzsche linked Amor Fati to the concept of eternal recurrence, “Basically, this
means that you live your life according to the principle that if you were to
have to repeat the same actions as in the past, you would do them the same way.
In other words, be at one with your fate and give your actions the weight of
eternity. Stop wishing for something else to happen, for a different fate. That
is to live a false life.”2
Christian Response to Amor Fati
How should Christians,
subscribing to Historic Christianity, encounter and engage with fate?
Our fate is
not fatalistic. The Bible does not teach that our life is an outcome of a
predetermined course of events. Although God is sovereign, HE has offered us
freedom to make choices that control our fate.
For
instance, we could choose to either accept or reject God. If we accept God, we
go to heaven. If we reject the Lord Jesus Christ, we go to hell. Our eternal destiny is based on the
choices we make now.
Our
temporal destiny, in large part, is also based on our choices. Cigarette
smoking is injurious to health. We either choose not to smoke cigarettes to
live a healthy life or choose to smoke so that we are vulnerable to illnesses
associated with smoking.
Life is a
series of choices. Our choices determine our destiny.
Most
significantly, we love God. We cannot disassociate God from our life. We see
life’s events from the perspective that God is the author and sustainer of our
life. This need not necessarily postulate that God has foreordained every
aspect of our life.3
Christians
look to God always – be it in moments of joy or pain. We are to depend on God
always; seek HIM and pray continually. Therefore, we are not called to navigate
life without God, rather we are to gain God’s peace and HIS sustaining and healing
power to navigate through life’ darkest moments.
Amor Fati
contradicts Christian belief. So Christians cannot subscribe to Amor Fati. Christians
are to love God. We are not mandated to love our fate.
The sovereign
God also controls our fate (cf. Tower of Babel, Jonah in the fish etc.). So the
individual Christian would rather be aligned with God’s will than to rebel
against God. Aligning with God’s will is only possible when we love God and
seek HIM always.
Basic Flaw in Amor Fati
The basic
flaw in Amor Fati is that one cannot truly
love his fate. In order to understand this, let’s consider an existential
dilemma. How should a father, who subscribes to Nietzsche’s Amor Fati, respond when
he discovers that his infant son has an illness that will kill him early?
A man had Amor Fati tattooed in his forearm so to be
constantly reminded to love his fate. Here’s how this man responded when he
discovered his infant son’s terminal illness, “When it counts is when you find
out your infant son might have an illness that will debilitate him and
ultimately kill him before he sees his twentieth birthday…It is then when you
have to look at your forearm, be reminded that you have a choice in how to
perceive this event, and look in the mirror through tears and consider
something: Maybe, just maybe, if he wasn’t sick I would have taken him for
granted. Now I won’t. Now I’ll make
every second count. I can choose to be
grateful for twenty years fully-lived with my son versus sixty years mostly
wasted.”4
Sounds good,
isn’t it? Not exactly!
How do we live while suffering from
a terminal illness or while experiencing the untimely death of a loved one?
Would not Amor Fati (love of fate) help us in this situation?
No!
We
cannot truly love a painful situation – a terminal illness or an unexpected loss of our loved one. A true
love of any situation would involve a desire for that situation. None of us
desire terminal illness or to lose our loved one early. Hence, we cannot truly
love our fate that involves horrendous pain.
True love of one’s fate should
essentially motivate a life within that fate. If one loves his fate, he should love
to live that fate. This is similar to loving our house. If we truly love our
house, we would love to remain in that house. We would not immediately seek to relocate
to a better house.
Fate that involves suffering cannot
merit a similar response. We cannot truly love to remain in pain. Instead, we truly
love to immediately liberate ourselves from that very painful circumstance of
our life. Therefore, the love that Amor
Fati demands cannot be true love.
But some may argue that they love
their debilitated life (e.g. disability). This cannot be true love as well! Suppose
a medical intervention is discovered to heal that disability, would we not rush
to gain healing? So we truly love a life without disability. We cannot truly
love a disabled life.
Nietzsche’s Amor Fati promotes
action, not stagnancy within that fate. This action does not preclude an action
to change that fate. While Nietzsche prescribes love of one’s fate, that very love
does not translate to enduring one’s fate. The man who subscribes to Amor Fati
states that Amor Fati does “…not to teach you to be a cow standing in the rain,
simply enduring and hoping to survive your fate…”5
While
applying Nietzsche’s Amor Fati to life’s painful predicaments, the constant
endeavor is to change life’s situations. Upon encountering a terminal illness,
the immediate response is to seek appropriate medical care to heal the illness.
This is an endeavor to change one’s fate.
Similarly,
upon losing one’s job, the immediate motivation is to search for another job. Those attracted to eat unhealthy
food will fight their appetite for unhealthy food and strive to live healthy.
They do not love their fate of sickness or joblessness or eating unhealthy food.
Therefore,
those applying Nietzsche’s Amor Fati to their painful predicament exhibit a
stark exhibition of a lack of love towards their painful predicament. They
desire to change their fate by either eating healthy or searching for jobs or
searching for a suitable medical intervention for healing.
Man constantly strives to make
things better in life; to change his fate. Thus he cannot love his fate that
involves pain, for he exhibits love for an improved position in life. Therefore,
Amor Fati is not a tenable proposition for life.
Endnotes:
1http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~beatrice/Nietzsche%20and%20Amor%20Fati.pdf
2https://dailystoic.com/robert-greene-interview/
3 Please refer to Dr. William Lane Craig’s argument
to assert the fallaciousness of theological fatalism at http://www.reasonablefaith.org/defenders-2-podcast/transcript/s3-14
4https://dailystoic.com/amor-fati/
5Ibid.
Websites cited were last accessed on 18th May
2017.
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