Affirming Fate and Incorporating Death: The Role of Amor Fati in Nishitani's Religion and Nothingness

This article argues for the usefulness of approaching specific aspects of Keiji Nishitani's thinking, in Religion and Nothingness, as developing out of a confrontation with central themes in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. In particular, I interpret Nishitani's discussion of "the personal and impersonal" as a response to the issue of loving fate (amor fati) in Nietzsche's writings. I thus consider Nishitani's approach to amor fati as both a background for thinking through his critical relationship to Nietzsche and as a focal point for thinking through key insights in his creative appropriation of Zen.