Even though his father and grandfather were Lutheran ministers, Nietzsche was scornful of religion. He believed that Christianity's focus on the afterlife made people less capable in handling their existing lives.
However, with that said, he was very appreciative of art and recognized that great art must have a metaphysical influence... "If belief in such heavenly truth declines in general, then that species of art can never flourish again which -- like the Divine Comedy, the paintings of Raphael, the frescoes of Michelangelo, the Gothic cathedrals -- presupposes not only a cosmic but a metaphysical significance in the objects of art."
I couldn't agree more.
