ABSTRACT
Although best known as a friend of Nietzsche, Franz Overbeck (1837-1905) is a significant thinker in his own right. In Martin Henry’s opinion, “Overbeck dissected the theology of the past and that of his professional contemporaries in a way that to his day has remained unparalleled in its acuity and range,”1 while David Tracy comments that “Overbeck’s friend Nietzsche used a hammer against theology; Overbeck himself used a scalpel. And Overbeck is finally the deeper challenge for theology itself.”2
