The Beatitudes - a 'doormat' kind of religion?
February 1, 2026 Friedrich Nietzche once argued that the eight Beatitudes that Jesus propounds in today’s Gospel , invert traditional noble values like strength, pride and power into evil, and encourages a passive or doormat type of morality. At first glance it does seem like Nietzche has a point. For example, t he call to be meek and celebrating those who mourn seem to call blessed those who are submissive (meek ) and those who are constantly only sorrowing or whining (mourning ) instead of doing something to change one’s situation . But Jesus himself was anything but meek, when he stood up to the religious establishment of his time, calling them a brood of vipers, hypocrites and whitened sepulchers, and openly challenged their understanding of the Jewish scrip...
