The evangelical opponents of progressive politics have long adopted the label of “Satan” or “Antichrist” for their enemies. For quite a long time, progressives have objected to their use of such terms, including the present writer.
Then, about one year ago, I was visiting the Cathedral in Orvieto, Italy, with Matthew Fox, and while we were watching together an image representing the Antichrist, Matthew exclaimed: “It feels like Donald Trump!” This was no joke on his part, but rather a shock of recognition.
In the book that he immediately started to write, however, the identification is more between the Antichrist and the MAGA movement than with Trump as an individual. This is relevant because the point is not attacking your enemies, but recognizing how evil plays subtly within society.
The book Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ details — albeit in a short fashion — how the politics that the MAGA movement pursues are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ and — even more blatantly — to the meaning itself of “Christ” as a symbol.
The book was intended in part as an instant book that could sway at least some voters from making the mistake of voting for Trump. It was a cry of sanity, which however became a cry in the desert. No one fully understood the extent of the depravity that was going to be unleashed. It was a “before the deluge” book.
One year later, we are in the middle of the tempest, and we cannot evade the topic of evil, as much as we would like to.
One important sentence that Matthew placed in the Preface says that any discussion of evil must be wrapped in a larger context understood as an Original Blessing. This is not simply a reference to his theology, but something similar to discussing violence in the context of the scientifically sound hypothesis of the radical goodness of human nature (see the July 3 DM).
I find very relevant, in this context, what Andrew Harvey wrote in the Afterwords to the same book: The authentic Christian mystical tradition of which Matthew Fox is our living elder statesman has the starkest and most realistic awareness of evil, a realism that the other traditions would be wise to integrate immediately.
Our seminar in Orvieto, one year ago before the deluge, was centered on the teachings of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), without lingering on the topic of evil. The quote by Aquinas that Matthew placed at the very beginning of the book is, however, extremely powerful and chilling when read today, in the context of what is actually happening:
Security is banished and everything is uncertain when people are cut off from law and depend on the will, I would say even the greed, of another. A tyrant oppresses the bodies of his subjects, but what is more damnable, he threatens their spiritual growth, for he is set on his own power, not their progress. He is suspicious of any dignity that they may possess that will prejudice his own iniquitous domination. A tyrant is more fearful of good persons than of bad persons, for he dreads their strange virtue.
Knowing how evil works does not equal overcoming it, but it represents a very important step in the right direction, a step which we must help other people to take as well.
Quotes from Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, p.vii, xix, 97.
See also Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
See also Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
See also Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
Banner Image: Chaos, murder, and the devil’s whispers in the ear of his acolyte: “Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist.” Fresco by Luca Signorelli, Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, Orvieto. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
What does it mean for you to hold together a stark and realistic understanding of evil, while also believing in the fundamental goodness of humankind?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
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.
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
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
5 thoughts on “One Year Ago in Orvieto”
We are never to take our focus off of the unrelenting power of ‘the Christhead’. That is our ‘meaning for being’ and our worship. All else is a distraction, a source of fear and anxiety. — BB.
It is not only possible to stand up for the vulnerable and persecuted and speak clear eyed truth/facts to power, and at the same time be focused on the “Christhead” with its joy, acts of compassion and creativity, but we are obligated to travel both paths at the same time. The other two disastrous options are to embrace the travesty of MAGA cruelty that more than 80% of Christianity has publically and zealously chosen, or to remain piously silent as the MAGA option fortifies its power, spreading suffering and destruction in the name of God for the benefit of a few, indeed the silence is deafening. Isaiah 3: 14-15 The Lord enters into judgement with the elders and princes of his people: “It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?” says the Lord of Hosts.
I think BOTH can be true at the same time — to an extent.
Bill Barlett’s stance, if I remember correctly, is as one of the Hindu teachers/priests. Your stance is as the Judeo-Christian teacher/priest.
I think Jesus taught from the ground-level human/TO top level divine Mysticism. He taught that we are no better than the “lowest level” of humans –which happened to be the poorest, the least powerful: women, the slaves, the prostitutes, and the “outsiders”.
WE are THEY.
Our Mysticism is Universal, and does not simply involve “myself.”
WE are the people of the Cross –NOT just “I”.
I/We will stand up for the poorest because I/We are ALL “Children of the One.” If I am the ONLY one who benefits from the Mystical Path, that leaves the poor and the outsider for the grinder, for the masses to devour. It’s a very narrow definition of “I”, one I don’t think Jesus took. He meant something MUCH bigger.
What is so scary about evil is about how banal, deceptive, unconscious, and conditioned it can become in human society when we ignore and give up our own personal and communal responsibility to be more conscious of our own True spiritual journey/identity within and among us of our interconnection/interdependence to Our LIVING LOVING SOURCE~CO-CREATOR PRESENT within and among Us healing, guiding, and transforming Us to Our TRUE HEART SELF~DIVINE ETERNAL SOUL of LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS… COMPASSIONATE COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Thank you for including the horror show in Florida, as I recently mentioned here. It is not just the Republican party that is selling merchandise, so is Amazon, and so is Etsy. I just checked, and Etsy has quite a variety. And, this is definitely not the first concentration camp in this state or in other states. It is the first one to be publicized as a good thing to be proud of.
I have no problem with a stark and very realistic understanding of evil, but I do not believe in the essential goodness of humanity, per se. I do believe in the potentiality for goodness and in the shining goodness of so many people of courage, especially in our BIPOC family members like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez. But I think that most of us are weak, even though we want to be good, and don’t feel we can pay the price of standing up for love and truth. I wonder how many people working to actually construct this camp have no other potential source of income to care for their families. The banality of evil.