296 Nietzschevantaged. There is no benevolent providence and no equitable distribu-
tion of chances to get ahead in life. Before this backdrop, morality can
be defined as an attempt to even out the "injustice" of nature and cre-
ate counterbalances. The power of natural destinies needs to be broken.
In Nietzsche's view, Christianity represented an absolutely brilliant
attempt to accomplish this aim. It offered the "underprivileged" three
advantages. First, it granted man an "absolute value, in contrast to man's
smallness and coincidental status in the flux of becoming and passing
on" (12,211; IVP§ 4). Second, suffering and evil were rendered tolerable
once they had "meaning." Finally, the belief in creation made people
regard the world as infused with spirit and therefore recognizable and
valuable. Christianity thereby prevented people who were disadvantaged
by nature from "hating themselves as people and taking sides against
life" (12,211). The Christian doctrine subdued the cruelty of nature,
roused people to life, and kept those who might otherwise have
despaired clinging to hope. In a word, it sheltered "the underprivileged
from nihilism" (12,215; WP% 55).
If we consider it a commandment of humanity not just simply to let
nature take its course but to establish a livable order for as many as pos-
sible, we ought to be grateful to Christianity for introducing its "theory
of morality" to the world. Nietzsche gready admired the power of
Christianity to set values, but he was not grateful to it, because its con-
sideration for the weak and the morality of evening things out impeded
the progress and development of a higher stage of mankind.
Nietzsche could envision this higher stage of mankind, as we now
know, only as a culmination of culture in its "peaks of rapture," which
is to say in successful individuals and achievements. The will to power
unleashes the dynamics of culmination, but it is also the will to power
that forms a moral alliance on the side of the weak. This alliance works
at cross-purposes with the goal of culmination and ultimately, in
Nietzsche's view, leads to widespread equalization and degeneration. As
a modern version of the "Christian theory of morality," this alliance
forms the backbone of democracy and socialism. Nietzsche therefore