I am very pleased that Lake Drive Books is publishing my book, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Antichrist: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Times just in time for the important 2026 midterm election.
We have been discussing Evil a lot in recent DMs with special attention given to three major studies that have appeared in the past month or so. Gil Durán’s dynamite study, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy; Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s powerful call to action, End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World; and Susan Neiman’s very timely book, Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era.
It is clear that Evil is in the air, on our lips, and all around us. I recognize my book, first published in Fall 2024 just before the presidential election, as very much a companion to these other three books. It was meant as an alert about the stakes of that election whose results many here and around the world regret deeply today.
The new subtitle, “Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time,” underscores the essential purpose of the book—to accept humanity’s common responsibility to combat evil.
I call upon two artists of the West, Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century, and Luca Signorelli in the early 16th century, who painted images of the Antichrist archetype that hold important lessons for our day. The first chapter names the impact that Signorelli’s painting had on Sigmund Freud, who visited Signorelli’s fresco in the Orvieto Cathedral on three separate occasions to study the lessons on Evil revealed there.
The painting has been called “mind-altering” for Freud, raising deep issues of antisemitism and his relationship to his father. It made an indelible impact on him, as he strove throughout his life to understand the human unconscious and how to account for human perfidy.
I maintain that the opposite of Evil is not the Good (Bad is the opposite of Good), but the Sacred. This sheds new light on Evil and how to protect ourselves against it and work through it in order to transform it.
Evil is the lack of good, yes, but it is also a force that we need to address directly at times. This is what Durán, Klein, Taylor and Neiman are also doing. It begins by naming Evil for what it is. I find our four books very compatible for that reason.
One thing I have learned in publishing this book is how uncomfortable we are talking about Evil in our culture. I was surprised by how few religious journals dared write reviews of my book in the past two years. But things are changing now: new to this addition of the book is a three-page Appendix that lists 26 articles on Trump or MAGA as Antichrist that have been published recently. And the list is only partial.
Evil is not an abstraction. Not today. Let me list a few recent headlines that speak to Evil:
- “Seven men rape an unconscious Cornell student and face no charges.”
- “Hegseth wants to livestream a firing squad execution.” (Only Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan hold public executions these days).
- “EPA Eliminates rule that limits planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year.”
Surely we need all the help we can get from journalists, philosophers, theologians, artists and activists to name the dark reality humanity is capable of.
I commend David Morris and LakeDrive Books for having the courage to publish this book.
Come to today’s Launch to learn more about it! And to tomorrow’s event sponsored by the Aquarian Minyan where Rabbi Jonathan Seidel and myself will discuss it.
Banner Image: Trump and his mentor Roy Cohn, paralleling a detail from Luca Signorelli’s Preaching and Deeds of the Antichrist (1499). Photo of Roy Cohn cropped from a 1954 original by the Associated Press; Wikimedia Commons. Composite image by team member Rosanna Tufts.
Queries for Contemplation
What do you consider the opposite of Evil? What are the implications of calling the opposite of Evil, the Sacred? How important do you think it is to ask artists to teach us about Evil?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’ s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.
Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
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5 thoughts on “Come to a Free Book Launch Tonight! And a Dialog on it Tomorrow”
The etymology of the “Evil” conveys notions of “exceeding due measure” or “overstepping proper limits.” https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2016/01/eve-evil.html
In The Great Work, Thomas Berry insists on the tragic consequences of reversing that root meaning by considering limits themselves as evil. “Some ancient force in the Western psyche seems to perceive limitation as a demonic obstacle to be eliminated, rather than as a strengthening discipline. Acceptance of the challenging aspect of the natural world is a primary condition for creative intimacy with the natural world. Without this opaque or even threatening aspect of the universe we would lose our greatest source of creative energy. This opposing element is as necessary for us as is the weight of the atmosphere that surrounds us.” [p. 67]
“Survival of any group of living beings in relation to other groups depends on the recognition of limits in the actions of each group. This law of limits is among the most basic of all cosmological, geological, or biological laws. It is particularly clear in the case of biological forms. […] in the modem world this sense of limits imposed by the natural functioning of the universe has to some extent been overridden, at least in a temporary manner, by industrial processes created by humans.” [p. 91]
It is ironic that “LIVE” is “EVIL” reversed.
Sacred is a good word as is Holy, as is Love. The implication of calling Evil the opposite of Sacred is to name it and define it. Artists and all people need to call it out and address it. It needs to be brought into the open, literally out of the shadows and into the Light. As Daniel reveals, Live is the word Evil written backwards. Sacred is the same letters as Scared. We must not be scared but bold, honest, determined and resolute in transmuting evil; and to do so with Love, never hatred, in our hearts.
All life needs to be in balance. We live in the circle of eternal existance.
Yes, it’s very important that the mystics, saints and artists, both past and present, teach and sensitize us to the prevalence of personal and societal evil because it can be so subtle in the shadow/unconscious side of our conscious life with its many consequent destructive effects such as war, cruelty, and social injustices on humanity and our Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/Graceful and essential abundance.
We each have a personal responsibility on our spiritual journeys to be aware and integrate the shadow sides of our human natures because our Faithful personal transformation of Loving Diverse Oneness is intimately related to social/planetary transformation in our human evolution (read David Nicol’s “Subtle Activism: The Inner Dimension of Social and Planetary Transformation”) with Our Co-Creation Cosmos.
You ask about art and evil. Classic works of fiction like “Heart of Darkness” and “Crime and Punishment,” take on evil; so do Luca Signorelli’s paintings, Bosch’s “The Last Judgment,” and Picasso’s “Guernica.” Plays like “The Crucible” and “The Scarlet Letter” do too. Classic forms of art warned us against evil. They showed us how to recognize it so we could confront it when it was wrapped up in the church or respectability. We need that. When it comes to too many movies, TV series, and video games, however, I’m not sure they have the same effect. In the guise of pointing a finger at evil, violence is often glorified. If not glorified, it is displayed so often in film that it implies that violence is a natural part of life. There is nothing “natural” about violence—not if you believe in original blessing. Violence is an aberration. It twists the souls of those who engage in it—perhaps those who see it. Look at how many veterans return damaged. I believe that when a society is consistently flooded with violent images, life begins to echo the art it is fed. The violence and wickedness (along with the lies) we’ve been graphically fed since the late 20th Century has helped to create the world we live in. We must start focusing on art that reveals the world we want to live in; and so, by modeling the good and the sacred, we manifest the world we desire.