“Even after his conversion, the true 'apostate' is not primarily committed to the positive contents of his new belief and to the realization of its aims. He is motivated by the struggle against the old belief and lives on for its negation. The apostate does not affirm his new convictions for their own sake; he is engaged in a continuous chain of acts of revenge against his own spiritual past. In reality he remains a captive of this past, and the new faith is merely a handy frame of reference for negating and rejecting the old. As a religious type, the apostate is therefore at the opposite pole from the 'resurrected,' whose life is transformed by a new faith which is full of intrinsic meaning and value.”

—  Max Scheler

Source: Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912), L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 66-67

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Even after his conversion, the true 'apostate' is not primarily committed to the positive contents of his new belief an…" by Max Scheler?
Max Scheler photo
Max Scheler48
German philosopher 1874–1928

Related quotes

Halldór Laxness photo

“The poet felt completely free now as he stood there on the deck in his collar and boots, sailing past new and ever newer districts; even if he did not own this land's resources, he owned its beauty.</b”

Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book Four: The Beauty of the Heavens

Elie Wiesel photo

“A recollection. The time: After the war. The place: Paris. A young man struggles to readjust to life. His mother, his father, his small sister are gone. He is alone. On the verge of despair. And yet he does not give up. On the contrary, he strives to find a place among the living. He acquires a new language. He makes a few friends who, like himself, believe that the memory of evil will serve as a shield against evil; that the memory of death will serve as a shield against death.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

Paul of Tarsus photo

“Every sin which a man does is without the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.”

Paul of Tarsus book First Epistle to the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 6:18
First Epistle to the Corinthians

Sigmund Freud photo

“He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

H.L. Mencken photo

“The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Colin Wilson photo

“And the central assertion of his philosophy is that this inner realm is the 'spiritual world' and that once man has learned to enter this realm, he realizes that it is not a mere imaginative reflection of the external world, but a world that possesses its own independent reality.”

Colin Wilson (1931–2013) author

Source: Rudolf Steiner: The Man and His Vision (1985), p. 161

Sigmund Freud photo

“The individual does actually carry on a double existence: one designed to serve his own purposes and another as a link in a chain, in which he serves against, or at any rate without, any volition of his own.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

“Faith — saving faith — whatever other definition may be framed — is best described as that act of the soul by which the whole man is given over to the guardianship of the Mediator. He who thus resigns himself to Jesus avouches two things: first, his belief that he needs a protector; secondly, his belief that Christ is just that protector which his necessities require.”

Henry Melvill (1798–1871) British academic

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 225.

Aeschylus photo

“Like a young horse
Who bites against the new bit in his teeth,
And tugs and struggles against the new-tried rein.”

Aeschylus Prometheus Bound

Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 1009–1010 (tr. Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Samuel Alito photo

“The confirmation of Sam Alito as U. S. Attorney for New Jersey is testimony to the commitment he has shown and the success of his efforts as a law enforcement official. I am confident that he will continue to do all he can to uphold the laws of this nation with the kind of determination and vigor that has been his trademark in the past.”

Samuel Alito (1950) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Former Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ), Congressional Record, [1987-12-08], p. S17427.

Related topics