Week of 9/2-7/2024: Aquinas, the Antichrist, the Apocalypse, & Tom Fox

September 2, 2024: Aquinas vs. Trump, SCOTUS & Antichrist: My New Book
Matthew’s new book, Trump & MAGA as Anti-christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, was necessarily the fastest book he’d ever written. It was inspired by the iconic fresco of “The Antichrist”  painted by Luca Signorelli which Matthew saw during his Aquinas workshop in Orvieto, Italy in July. Aquinas speaks of Christ’s teaching of the “dignity of human nature” and Democracy is about the dignity of all people—and therefore their equality. Recent decisions from SCOTUS hardly ensure “equal justice under law” or the dignity of all. We must remember this in the upcoming election.

The “Citizens United” decision explained: How corporations can now legally “buy” lawmakers and judges. Video by The Story of Stuff Project.

September 3, 2024: Christ & Antichrist in Today’s Politics & Thomas Aquinas, ii
On the first page of Matthew’s new book, he shares Aquinas’s thoughts that a democracy is preferable to a tyranny “where the advantage of one man is sought.” He further says: “a tyrant is more fearful of good persons than of bad persons, for he dreads their strange virtue.” Virtue is something that Trump obviously does not understand. He cannot fathom, for instance, why someone would risk their life for our country. When veterans are injured or captured, he calls them “suckers” and “losers.” Aquinas also talks about the perils of greed. “Avarice gives rise to insensibility to compassion.” Aquinas employs words like “force, violence, deceit, falsehood, perjury, and fraud” to name how greedy people accomplish their goals. It’s almost like he knows Trump, isn’t it?

September 4, 2024: Christ & Antichrist as Pictured by Hildegard of Bingen
Twelfth century abbess, musician, scientist, healer, saint and doctor of the church, Hildegard of Bingen, knows Christ, and she also painted a powerful image of the antichrist. In her painting of the healing Christ within us all, his hands are extended in blessing from his heart. He is always ready to help others. She pictures Christ as a young man, “who is the beginning of justice” and “a very strong warrior” who will “break the head of injustice.” Justice and beauty will triumph. In contrast, in her antichrist painting, she depicts evil beasts who bring chaos to our world.

Image of the Antichrist by Hildegard of Bingen. Found in Matthew Fox’s Illuminations book.

September 5, 2024: Hildegard on the Anti-Christ, continued
In Hildegard’s vision, A monstrous and very black head appeared, having fiery eyes and ears like the ears of an ass and nostrils and mouth like the nostrils and mouth of a lion, crunching with a great jaw and cutting horribly like horrible iron teeth. Moving with “monstrous ugliness, it spreads a foul odor on the mountain” and “tears the institutions of the church to pieces with the crudest greediness” and causes bloody wounds on the thighs of mother church. The beast is “the Antichrist, the son of injustice, the cursed one of the cursed ones.” She names the monster the “worst of beasts” who joins up with kings, dukes, leaders, and those with money and prestige.

September 6, 2024: Are Our Times Both Apocalyptic & Revelatory?
Are we living in apocalyptic times? What might be called also “End Times?” After all, this is what triggered the impactful fresco on “The Antichrist” by Luca Signorelli. An “end time” or “apocalyptic time” gave birth to archetypes like the antichrist in the Christian scriptures at the end of the first century. Indeed, the Book of Apocalypse (or Revelations) is all about the early Christians facing the wickedness of an empire attempting to wipe this early Christian sect off the face of the earth. Throwing them to the lions, etc., was a real thing, as was blaming them for a fire that engulfed Rome. Today we have the existential threat of climate change, plus fascism at work in our highest court and threatening to overtake the country if a certain candidate wins the election. In this context the archetype of the Anti-Christ returns.

September 7, 2024: The Passing of My Brother, Tom Fox, an Educator Par Excellence
Matthew’s eldest brother passed from the earthly realm this past Monday night. Tom Fox was a truly superb teacher, using creative means to stimulate the minds and creativity of his students. His book, On becoming edGe-ucated: how uncertainty can link the frontiers of expert inquiry to the education of all,* was published just weeks before his death. Among his clever ways of inspiring his students were the following: 1) In order to learn physiology, he had his students build their own skeleton. First, of course, they had to really study the body. The father of one of his students called him, amazed. His daughter knew more about the human body than his first year medical students! 2) To teach about the Middle Ages, he had the students turn the classroom into a replica of Chartres Cathedral. Students could choose their own area of interest—stained glass, sculpture, flying buttresses, etc. But rather than teach them about flying buttresses, he put a bunch of books about them on his desk. He didn’t say a word, and the books disappeared and the students learned! 3) A humorous event occurred when, on Tom’s “Think Day,” one student was found in town by a policeman during school hours. The policeman said, “What are you doing?” The students replied, “I’m thinking.” The officer was outraged and yelled, “Thinking? You’re supposed to be in school!”

Matthew Fox with his brother, Tom Fox, on the right. Photo courtesy of Matthw Fox.

*G. Thomas Fox, On becoming edGe-ucated: how uncertainty can link the frontiers of expert inquiry to the education of all.  The art on the cover of the book is by Tom’s wife, Anna Joelsdottir. (To purchase the book, click HERE.)

Banner image: “Beast of the Apocalypse, Pomposa Abbey.” Photo by Carolyn Whitson on Flickr.


Recommended Reading

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human

The A.W.E. Project reminds us that awe is the appropriate response to the unfathomable wonder that is creation… A.W.E. is also the acronym for Fox’s proposed style of learning – an approach to balance the three R’s. This approach to learning, eldering, and mentoring is intelligent enough to honor the teachings of the Ancestors, to nurture Wisdom in addition to imparting knowledge, and to Educate through Fox’s 10 C’s. The 10 C’s are the core of the A.W.E. philosophy and process of education, and include: compassion, contemplation, and creativity. The A.W.E. Project does for the vast subject of “learning” what Fox’s Reinvention of Work did for vocation and Original Blessing did for theology. Included in the book is a dvd of the 10 C’s put to 10 video raps created and performed by Professor Pitt.
An awe-based vision of educational renewal.Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.

The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time

Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics



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5 thoughts on “Week of 9/2-7/2024: Aquinas, the Antichrist, the Apocalypse, & Tom Fox”

  1. Love~Wisdom~Truth~Peace~Justice~Healing~Strength~Transformation~Compassion~Diverse Oneness… for All Our sisters/brothers and Our Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/Her graceful essential abundance… Amen

  2. I was just reading about Rabbi Lerner and Matthew’s brother Tom. Two special people who have walked this earth and touched so many people. I want to send my condolences and prayers that they are both embraced with love by their ancestors and for those who knew and loved them here on Earth that each person continues to feel their love here on this side of the veil.

  3. September 9, 2024
    Dear Matthew, WOW, this image of the antichrist is graphic in its depiction of pure EVIL. Wow, Hildegard certainly knew how to portray the evil in her time and ours. What would she say directly to Trump if SHE were on the debate stage- not making a joke here, I just wonder.
    New topic: Every day on NPR ( National Public Radio) there is a discussion about abortion, with interviews of women who have had the procedure as early as age 14 ( rape victim).
    I totally believe in the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception until our death ( and beyond). PLEASE PLEASE comment on this topic, where do you stand on this issue? Condsiering the many individual stories of women who were raped, used as mere sexual objects, where do you stand on this VERY important issue?I am sure other readers would like to know.
    Many blessings to you.
    Rosalie
    St. Louis, Missouri

  4. As I read Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ, I cannot help but think of Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, whose magisterial work, The Empty Wagon: Zionism’s Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft, documents the historical roots of modern Zionism and its intentional remaking of the spiritual, pacifist, exilic Jew into a militaristic, nationalistic Übermensch, replacing allegiance to God with allegiance the Zionist nation state. His book is heavy reading, so I highly recommend watching his more accessible interviews, which can be found on YouTube with a simple search for Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro. As the destructive power of Israel + the US becomes more brazen, Matthew Fox’s book feels all the more ominous when read in light of Rabbi Shapiro’s work: Trump’s proposed appointees are all Zionist zealots.

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