Ernest Renan#
Summary#
Nietzsche cites Renan as exemplifying the Celtic-Catholic religious temperament inaccessible to Northern Europeans. He describes Renan as possessing a refined, voluptuous soul that is thrown off balance by the slightest touch of religious thrill. Though Nietzsche initially responded to Renan’s pious assertions with rage, calling them “religious silliness par excellence,” he came to appreciate them precisely as antipodal to his own thought.