SOURCE: Lou Andreas-Salomé, Gordon Fraser, 1984, pp. 74-86.

(Livingstone is an English educator and critic. In the following excerpt she assesses Andreas-Salomé's theories on the historical origins and development of religion.

When Nietzsche encouraged Lou von Salomé to philosophise about religion, he was recognising an inclination she showed long before she met him. Faith and loss of faith had been her main childhood experience, history of religion had been her main study with both [Hendrik] Gillot and [Alois] Biedermann. She went on thinking about religion all her life. Her theories about art, love, femaleness and Russia are all closely related to her religious views. More specifically, though, during the years 1891-8, and still under Nietzsche's influence, she devoted eleven long essays to this subject.

Some of the essays are more scholarly, some more personal. All suffer from looseness of expression and structure; one would like to rewrite them...