Week of 10/13-18/2025: Goodall, Thiel, Oxford Martyrs

This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Some are penned by Matthew Fox (MF), and some by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). You can click on the title of a DM in order to view the original piece in its entirety. Also, please note, we will continue to offer a video teaching by Matthew each Monday.

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October 13, 2025: Wisdom From Jane Goodall: Some Teachings, Actions & Stories (MF)
Planet Earth has lost a great luminary with the passing of Jane Goodall. Let us celebrate her! On the occasion of her 90th birthday, Jane Goodall at 90: Celebrating an Astonishing Lifetime of Science, Advocacy, Humanitarianism, Hope, and Peace* was published. We learn that in her work with chimpanzees, Jane did something unheard of in the scientific community. She named each one. The authors of the book say: “The most important thing that Jane did was to narrow the gulf between us and animals.” It is thanks to Jane that eventually we stopped using chimpanzees in experiments in the U.S. Singer/songwriter Dave Matthews tells of how he and Jane were part of a Live Earth concert broadcast from Giant stadium, with about 100,000 people in attendance. Confessing that she wasn’t used to speaking to so large a crowd, she began her talk by making the sound a chimp makes to greet its fellow chimps across the jungle. The crowd hushed and then “some primal response rose to a deafening joyful roar.” Such is the power of Jane and the animals she loved.

October 14, 2025: Peter Thiel, Billionaire & Silicon Valley Preacher of the Anti-Christ (MF)
Recently, Thiel has been publicly ruminating on the Antichrist in talks at Harvard, Oxford, to clergy in Innsbruck, and most recently in a four-part series in San Francisco. Matthew read the transcript of those talks. Thiel’s message seems to be the polar opposite of what Jane Goodall stood for—“amor mundi” (love of the world). Thiel was one of the first big shots in Silicon Valley to back Donald Trump beginning in 2015. He was also the one to install JD Vance as Trump’s Vice President. His Palantir company specializes in gathering people’s private data and has been rewarded with billions of dollars in contracts from the defense department and from ICE. Thiel complains loudly about having to pay taxes, and also about rules regarding AI, proposing that such demands may be a mark of the antichrist. Perhaps he is projecting a bit?

October 15, 2025: Questions Posed to Peter Thiel on His Recent Talks on the Antichrist (MF)
Matthew poses some questions for Peter Thiel. Here is a sampling: 1) What does unchecked capitalism do to society? Do only the rich survive? 2) Thomas Aquinas, whom you invoke, made it very clear that justice and the common good are the glue that keeps society together. I did not see the word “justice” or “compassion” mentioned even once in your four lectures. 3) When you talk about the American and Roman Empires, I hear you imagining Silicon Valley’s aspirations to be a new empire in a post-democracy world run by and for billionaires. Is that your message? 4) You propose Bill Gates as another nominee for Antichrist. Is it because he has called for billionaires to give away their money for good causes? 5) What kind of religion are you and other Christian nationalists trying to give birth to? It seems to mirror almost exactly the opposite of what Jesus lived and taught and died for. It seems to be resonant of the Antichrist.

October 16, 2025: Teresa the Great (GG)
October 15 was the Feast Day of Teresa of Avila, a revered Spanish saint. At first, GG felt uninspired with her prose. But then a quotation by a Carmelite nun piqued his curiosity: Teresa of Avila had that mysterious quality the Spanish call “duende” which is characteristic of gypsies, flamenco guitarists, and dancers. “Duende” is raw, primitive, tempestuous energy, a vulnerability to inspiration boiling in the blood.** St. Teresa is known for her ecstatic mystical experiences. Teresa was not alone. Other women of the time experienced the ecstasy of love without the intervention of any men. Teresa’s most famous work is titled The Interior Castle.*** In it, she treats the soul as a diamond palace with many hidden rooms to be discovered, and life as a journey of exploration and deeper intimacy with the divine. 

October 17, 2025: Matthew Fox Challenges Peter Thiel to Debate on the Antichrist (MF)
Today’s DM is a press release readers can choose to download (HERE) to send out to media contacts about Matthew being ready and willing to debate Peter Thiel on the subject of the Antichrist. It states, in part: Postmodern theologian, educator, and author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox has issued a public invitation to Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel for a debate on the meaning of the Antichrist for this American moment.…When asked why he wants to take Thiel up on his offer to discuss the antichrist, Fox replied: “…I am certain an exchange between us would… offer an occasion to dive more deeply into this powerful archetype of the antichrist that has so caught his imagination and speaks to the apocalyptic spirit of our times.” ….While Thiel has described himself as “religious but not spiritual,” Fox argues that religion stripped of spirituality loses its essence of gratitude, compassion, and consciousness directed to the common good. 

October 18, 2025: The Oxford Martyrs
Yesterday was the feast day of the Oxford Martyrs. These are three men of ecclesiastical rank under King Edward VI, the boy king. They were burned at the stake during the reign of his sister and successor, Mary. Their sins? They believed that the people of England should be able to hear the Bible read to them in English, to participate in the Eucharist around a common table, and should be taught that the miraculous change happening at each celebration of the Lord’s Supper was not transubstantiation, but rather a change of the heart. They died because they wanted the religion of Christ to be more personal and less hierarchical. But they also contributed to the expulsion of about 12,000 people from monasteries and nunneries — around 1.5% of the population of England. In short, the Oxford Martyrs embody a jumble of contradictory themes—both “good” reform and maybe some actions that were not so wise.

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* Mark Bekoff, “The Indomitable Jane Goodall,” Newsbreak, October 2, 2025.

**Tessa Bielecki, Foreword to Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life, translated by Mirabai Starr (Shambala, 2007).

***St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, translated by Mirabai Starr (Riverhead Books, 2004)

Banner image: “Election 2024- Stop the Thiel! If a fading Donald Trump makes it to the White House, it’s only a matter of time until Peter Thiel’s Manchurian candidate, JD Vance, becomes president of the United States. The 2024 election is about avoiding an authoritarian future.” Cartoon by DonkeyHotey. Wikimedia Commons.

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Related Readings by Matthew Fox

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance

In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
 “This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug

In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.”  ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.

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.