The Morality of Passions by Nietzsche presents a view of man's relationship with passion contrary to the tradition and thought of major religion and proclaimed moral gurus. His main criticism of the way the church deals with passion is that it does not suggest spiritualizing the feelings that we all have approaching them as beautiful and good, but makes a thoughtless and quick judgement immediately. "The most famous formula for this stands in the New Testament, in the Sermon on the Mount, where, let it be said incidentally, things are by no means regarded from a height. It is said there, for instance, with an application to sexuality: 'If the eye offend thee, pluck it out" Consider the concept of euthanasia, the first instinct you have is that you are killing someone and it is wrong. If this is approached from a point of view that considers the mental and physical anguish that the agonized person is suffering from, an educated and thought out decision would be to consider the concept of life on a human level and help the suffering person rather than adhere to the law of not killing. The passion of men must be looked at like a piece of art, of a level above just physical appearance or practicality. The most beautiful painting or sculpture may not be an exact replica of the subject but a representation invoking different feeling in different people. Nietzsche states that in this situation if the painting represented passion Christianity would throw the painting out rather than even attempt to interpret it as beautiful. "The church combats passion by means of excision of all kinds: its practice, its "remedy," is castration. It never inquires "how can a desire be spiritualized, beautified, deified?"
             Nietzsche's next point is that not all men have the ability to spiritualize their passion. Some people must resort to the extremes of fighting passion rather than embracing and interpreting...