The Antichrist

Henry Louis Mencken was an American journalist and essayist who is perhaps most remembered for his satirical reporting of the “Scopes Monkey Trial” (1925), in which a Tennessee teacher was indicted for teaching human evolution in a public school (then an unlawful act in Tennessee). The character of E.K. Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind (1955), a play based on the Scopes Trial, was largely inspired by Mencken.

Mencken was a public admirer of Nietzsche’s works and concurred with many of his beliefs—including his loathing of Christianity and religion, his elitism, and his opposition to representative democracy. Mencken was a supporter of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, though he was hostile to other sciences including economics and mathematics.

Mencken wrote several texts implying a deep racism, especially antisemitism and an affinity for social Darwinism. Journalist Christopher Hitchens labeled Mencken a German nationalist and criticized his relative silence on the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Born as Saul of Tarsus (later Latinizing his name in his writings), Paul the Apostle was one of the most significant evangelists of early Christianity, influencing teachings that would form the religion’s foundation. Paul was not one of the original Twelve Apostles—in fact, he took part in the persecution of early Christians in Jerusalem before his conversion. In his writings, he recalls experiencing a vision of the resurrected Christ while on the road to Damascus and was struck blind for three days. When his eyesight was restored, Paul began to preach Jesus as the Jewish messiah, devoting the rest of his life to spreading Christianity throughout the ancient world. Paul died in Rome, likely to execution.

Paul is credited with writing the Pauline epistles, which form thirteen books in the New Testament, though only five are considered genuine. The Pauline epistles encompass some of the earliest writings in the Christian world and greatly influenced Christian theology and morality throughout the religion’s history.

Within the context of The Antichrist, Saint Paul is invoked by Nietzsche as both historical figure and allegorical personification of all Christian theologians and evangelists. Nietzsche accuses Paul of appropriating Christ’s teachings and corrupting them, largely by placing emphasis on the crucifixion.

Representing Nietzsche’s faceless interlocutors with whom he is in dialogue throughout The Antichrist, the Hyperboreans share many qualities with his famous Übermensch. He calls these individuals the “most rare of men” and believes them to be the only readers who can fully comprehend his text. According to Nietzsche, the Hyperboreans belong to no single race or nation. They appeared many times throughout history across all cultures, though Nietzsche is uncertain if any of them are alive at the time of his writing.

In Greek mythology, the land of Hyperborea and its people existed in the far north of the known world, separated from mortal lands by the Riphean Mountains. Many classical Greek and Roman writers—including Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Virgil, and Cicero—described the Hyperboreans as living up to a thousand years with lives of perfect wisdom and happiness.