The myth of the overman and modern society
The myth of the overman and modern society

Summary/Abstract: The notion of the Übermensch or overman was made famous by the German philosopher Friederich Nietzche. But the term and its underlying concept have a longer history that we normally assume. There are some pagan and Christian roots. The pagan roots are related to the mythology of the demi-god heroes, to the mythology of the semi-divine rulers and also to the earlier Christian notion of the saint and of a schismatic the prophet of the Holy Spirit. In the schismatic conception of the Christian prophet, there is also the connotation of a new era, the era of the Holy Spirit, an era when the Holy Spirit makes Himself manifest by imparting gifts, elevating some people to the status of hyperanthropos. Due to the transformation of the western branch of Christianity and the adoption of the juridical model of the redemption, this notion had become elevated to some marginal strings of thought, like the German pietism, from whence it flew in Romanticism and political thinking. Great political men such as Napoleon have been named as being overmen, people who possess an extraordinary power to concentrate and accelerate change for the better.

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