For Friedrich Nietzsche, Christianity was a technology of power that allowed the weak and servile elements in society – the priestly classes – to disempower and subjugate the naturally stronger. With its promises of otherworldly salvation, its ethic of self-sacrifice and self-denial, and its commitment to the value of individual human lives – even those with disabilities and infirmities – the Christian faith enchained the greatest and strongest human specimens. But it need not remain so. Faith was on the wane. What might emerge after Christianity, Nietzsche wondered, in the absence of its ideological pollution?

Nietzsche was a bombastic and florid writer, with a proclivity for aphorisms over argument, and many of his Christian critics have felt free to dismiss him on that basis. But his central claim deserves a fairer hearing.

Enthusiasm for Nietzsche’s ideal of human excellence and vitality has given rise to calls for manly Christian warriors to flex their superiority.