"It is regrettable that no Dostoevsky lived near him." -- Nietzsche on Jesus

[cvn]

What did Nietzsche mean by that quote? Was he suggesting that Jesus could have benefited from someone with Dostoevsky's abilities as a psychologist?

[tzar]

he meant D. got what Jesus said much better than the Apostles did.

[cvn]

You think? Having read The Anti-Christ, I would be surprised if that was what he meant. Then again, he did once say, "There was only one Christian, and he died on the cross," and even listed Jesus along with Dostoevsky, Goethe, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon as one of his supermen. Perhaps even though he considered Christianity, in any form, to be slave morality, he at least respected Jesus for creating his own value system, and realized that the perverted form of Christianity was even more harmful. It's possible.

Nietzsche was certainly a complicated person, like a Dostoevsky character. I'm reminded of the scene in The Brothers Karamazov where Father Zosima, the monks, and the Karamazov family are discussing Ivan's article on ecclesiastical courts, trying to find out whether it's meant to be satirical. Like Ivan, Nietzsche is someone who is often misunderstood.

[king]

I always thought that Nietzsche was responding to western-Augustian/Anselm influenced Christianity? Did he understand Eastern Orthodoxy at all? I don't know?

[cvn]

I always thought that Nietzsche was responding to western-Augustian/Anselm influenced Christianity? Did he understand Eastern Orthodoxy at all? I don't know?

Would you mind elaborating on the differences?

[Donato]

The complete quote is found in Nietzsche's,  The Antichrist: “It is regrettable that a Dostoyevsky did not live near this most interesting of all decadents (Jesus Christ) - I mean someone who would have known how to sense the very stirring charm of such a mixture of the sublime, the sickly, and the childlike.” 
 Nicolae Rambu's article "Nihilism as an Axiological Ilness" explains the above quote like this: "Referring to Jesus as an idiot, Nietzsche had in mind the fascination of the reader for Prince Myshkin, the idiot created by Dostoevsky, fascination which results from the bizarre mix of sublime,
illness and childlike."  Any Orthodox Christian would take grave offense at Nietzsche's psychological description of Jesus. In any case, Nietzsche remains a controversial, atheistic figure who spoke of Christianity in blasphemous terms.