A Korean priest doing pastoral work in Vietnam writes in the Catholic Pusan bulletin about the concept 'Amor Fati,' better known, he says, through the songs of various trot singers. This phrase is Latin for "Love your Fate," a concept popularized by Nietzsche and originating in Stoic philosophy.
The priest reminds us that, as Christians, we have an understanding of God's Providence that differs from that of the Stoics and Nietzsche. It is the belief that everything happening in our lives can fit into God's plans. Therefore, "Amor fati" can be understood not merely as accepting fate, but as loving and trusting the life God has granted us.
St. Paul says, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). 'God writes straight with crooked lines.' This means that even trials, suffering, and wounds we face eventually bear good fruit through efforts to recognize God's providence. Jesus also prayed in Gethsemane, "Not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). This was an attitude of not rejecting His own fate but entirely accepting love.
This concept, Amor Fati, as used by the pre-Christian Stoics and by Nietzsche, was not the same, but what is interesting is the trust they both had in accepting their 'fate'.
The Stoics understood Amor Fati to be a part of a rationally ordered Nature. They followed reason in all that was within their control and paid no attention to irrational feelings outside of their control. This, they considered, was conforming to Nature's rational order.
Stoics believed in a spiritual dimension: a rational, pantheistic Logos governing the universe, and efforts to cultivate virtue and reason show a profound engagement with questions of meaning, purpose, and the Nature of the divine.
Nietzsche rejects this order and is determined to reconcile himself to necessity —a life without meaning or purpose, without unjustified assumptions, without God. Life had no purpose; it was chaotic, and the only response to nihilism was to affirm our own lives and accept existence. We can exist and make life worth living if we ourselves believe it is worth living.
Nietzsche thus advises us to practice amor fati because, in the face of a Godless, purposeless, chaotic universe, it is the only valid response to nihilism: only by affirming the story of our own lives can we possibly bear existence. The burden is on us; it cannot be outsourced to teleology — life can only be justified and made worth living if we ourselves believe that it is.
It is remarkable to see someone accept fate with love, without any belief in life's meaning or order, and without God. This was the understanding of Amor Fati in the life of Nietzsche, who we must remember was brought up in a Christian home, the son of a Lutheran Minister.
No comments:
Post a Comment