The Via Positiva is all about awe and wonder, beauty and gratitude that fill our hearts and minds when we consider the wonder of life. Or the “miracle of existence” as poet Rilke put it.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel tells us that “the world is not just here. It shocks us into amazement.” And that “grandeur fills humans with awe.”
No one can deny that today’s science and ingenuity is bringing us news and pictures and information about our universe and existence. All of that is a great gift knocking on our doors and computers, daily bringing grandeur to us along with awe and radical amazement. If we let it.
But Heschel, keen observer of human nature that he was, points out how we can be often too busy exploiting to appreciate the sublimity and grandeur of our world. He warns: The obsession with power has completely transformed the life of man and dangerously stunted his concern for beauty and grandeur.
We have achieved plenty, but lost quality;
we have easy access to pleasure,
we forget the meaning of joy.
But what is more serious is the fact that
man’s worship of power
has resurrected the demon of power….
Speaking of demons of power, let us consider the so-called “big, beautiful bill” recently passed by MAGA (whom I humbly and I think quite accurately called the antichrist in my book published shortly before the election last year).
In a recent essay, Thom Hartmann reports of a rightwing movement called “Veterans on Patrol” which is busy targeting and sabotaging weather radars. “When people are told not to believe their own eyes, not to trust doctors, journalists or even the national weather service,” we are in trouble. This group is not just anti-science, anti-government and anti-democracy, “it joins a growing list of extremist groups peddling lies and hatred: anti-immigrant, anti-Indigenous, antisemitic, misogynist, anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim.”
The radar system they destroyed was there to save lives, especially in tornado-prone Oklahoma. “When it’s destroyed, people will die. Period. This…is domestic terrorism.”
The real “disease” behind such nonsense is “the deliberate poisoning of the American mind with fantasy and fear by a network and system of media and social media owned by anti-democracy rightwing billionaires and filled with Russian trolls. And when truth dies, democracy soon follows.”
These people have learned from Goebbels that “a lie can be more powerful than the truth when it aligns with grievance, fear, and identity and is repeated often enough.”*
Yes, the demons of lies and greed and unchecked billionaire privileges are alive and well and thriving. And remember: The new budget bill grants huge tax cuts to these very crazed billionaires we are talking about—tax cuts that we ordinary citizens are paying for, including the $4 trillion dollar increase in the national debt spawned by them.
Every single Republican congressperson who voted for this budget should have to answer to every citizen and to the press (if they have the balls to ask questions) about their participation with demons of power. Why did they choose folly over wisdom, lies over truth, and democracide over democracy?
And what demons are they worshipping when they continue to deny climate change and vote to destroy all environmental regulations to curb it? And support erecting concentration camps for immigrants? Why have they chosen the path of the antichrist?
* Thom Hartmann, “Is Delusion the Right’s New “Weapon of Mass Destruction?” The Hartmann Report, July 10, 2025.
See Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, pp. 7f.
And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: Surrounded by sycophants, Trump signs the “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4, 2025, with a signature intentionally big enough to be photographable from several yards away. Photo by the White House. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree with Heschel that humanity’s worship of power has resurrected demons of power? Do you see these demons at work in current American politics and media? How does your appreciation of the “miracle of existence” help counteract or exorcise such demons?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
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
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
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
.svg){kind=link}
4 thoughts on “Heschel, the “Demon of Power” & The New Budget Bill”
The loss of an individual by suicide is always a tragedy. Witnessing the suicide on an entire nation incensed by smiling suit-and-tie thurifers is a source of grief of untold proportions. And when blaming other nations for one’s demise and enacting racketeering policies top it all, words fail to qualify that abyss. History will judge harshly.
Yes! Yes! Thank you Matthew for today’s DM and your personal message/warnings about the continued demons of power such as Trump’s administration, Republican congressional sycophants and enablers, and greedy oligarchs heading many multinational corporations with their lies, corruption, power, and destructiveness not only towards our democracy, but also to Sacred Mother Earth and Humanity around the world.
All of Us personally and communally need to continue being open, conscious, and vigilant (as spiritual warriors and co-creators) with FAITH in Our Source~Co-Creator’s SPIRIT of DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM — Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Forgiveness, Transformation, Creativity, Beauty, Compassion, LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS… — ETERNALLY PRESENT in the Divine Flow within and among Us in Our daily lives with one another and All spiritual beings in All physical/non-physical spiritual dimensions of Our Sacred Evolving Cosmos and Angelic realms….
Yes, I agree about the demons of power. I can’t remember who said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is essential to keep the faith, to stay grounded in God’s power, and to seek out those who will work with you toward justice–solidarity means support of shared goals. And joy in the midst of all the horror is still there, as you point out. Finding dependable sources of information is also essential, including these DM’s. Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, Jim Wallis, and the Rev. Dr. William Barber–among many others–are reliable sources IMO. The Contrarian is an online news source founded in January by refugees from Washington Post, NY Times, and other mainstream media. I like the online Guardian, and, for Florida, the Phoenix. Lying and violence are now normalized, and I must reveal and protest at every opportunity. Our Congress people must be kept accountable by regular communications, and there are opportunities some times with local newspapers for columns and letters to the editor. There are always peaceful actions to be taken.
Thank you for today’s meditation. To want to hold onto power may also be because they are narcissists, and do not know how to connect or care for others in a communitarian way. I feel that it is a new level of psychological insight, to see that a person who has no empathy CANNOT be exhorted to be more compassionate. (Barking up the wrong tree is a metaphor we could use). Compassion and empathy, and reasoned discernment are connected to the prefrontal cortex, which links feelings to thoughts. It is one of the most important functions of the brain. I believe we now need psychological testing to rigorously assess if someone is CAPABLE of being a public servant, to “care for the common good and provide for the common welfare.” If not, we should not allow them to run for office! We also should have rigorous testing to decide whether an elderly person still can be cognitively capable of carrying out the job. We have bandied the word “dementia” around, and it is a real question whether anyone who is in the most powerful job in the world should have access to nuclear codes, when their mental capacity to reason is dimmed.