Announcing Matthew Fox’s Newest Book, confronting evil in our time
Dear Friends of Creation Spirituality,
We have some exciting and well-timed news to complement the “joyful warrior” energy sweeping the nation in defense of democracy. My new book called Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election has been released as an e-book and audio book.
For immediate access, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE, or the audiobook 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 HERE.
Back Story:
In mid-June this summer I traveled to Orvieto, Italy to lead a week-long workshop on Thomas Aquinas in honor of his 800th Birthday and 750th anniversary of his death. He spent time in Orvieto himself teaching and writing poetry.
While there, I visited the famous late 13th century Cathedral of the Assumption—some call it the most beautiful church in the world—and in it is a chapel housing three very large frescoes, one being “The Antichrist” finished in 1503 by Luca Signorelli. While standing in front of it, my first words were, “it feels like Donald Trump” (see the Daily Meditation HERE). I have since learned that Sigmund Freud visited it three times and called it “the finest painting” he saw in his life. The fresco profoundly influenced his work and an entire book has been written on Freud's Trip to Orvieto: The Great Doctor's Unresolved Confrontation with Antisemitism, Death, and Homoeroticism; His Passion for Paintings; and the Writer in His Footsteps. Also, Michelangelo spent three months there studying it before he painted the Sistine Chapel.
Upon returning home, I knew I had to write my new book, Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
A word about the Antichrist:
The archetype of the Antichrist has been mostly invoked by fundamentalist Christians. This book turns the tables by holding it up to help name the current battle of democracy vs. theocracy and of lovers of the Earth vs. deniers of climate change in our time. This powerful archetype names real evil in our midst, evil that is not stupid or without talent, for evil seldom is. The Antichrist—whether that of Hildegard, Signorelli, Luther, Calvin and other reformers—is an archetype for our troubled times because it helps name Evil in our midst. And its remedies. The first of which is shedding light on the shadows we can easily fall into.
I am deeply grateful to my colleagues Caroline Myss and Andrew Harvey for her solid Foreword on the power of archetype and his scintillating and challenging Afterword.
I offer this book to assist those who want to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and the future of a government of, by, and for the people in this land (not of, by, and for billionaires). For far too long the (mostly) religiously illiterate press in America have been identifying “Christianity” and “Christians” as fundamentalists even though they make up a minority of the believers in America today and many are jumping the Christian Nationalism ship. The values of the Christ that underscore the meaning of democracy include the dignity of the individual and also the commitment to community, solidarity and the common good. Truth, Justice, Beauty and Joy, are primary. These values are held by people of many faith traditions and of none (such as Freud was).
Included in the book are ten colored paintings, seven of Signorelli’s frescoes, one by Fra Angelico and two by Hildegard of Bingen, one on Christ and one on the Antichrist.
The Table of Contents follows:
Foreword by Caroline Myss
Introduction: An “Aha!” Moment in a Church in Orvieto
Chapter One: Freud’s Encounter with the Antichrist Painting in Orvieto Cathedral
Chapter Two: The Antichrist as a Naming of Evil
Chapter Three: Christ as Archetype
Chapter Four: Anti-Christ as Archetype
Chapter Five: Jesus and Democracy
Chapter Six: MAGA: Making America Grotesque Again
Chapter Seven: 18 Signs of the Times: The Antichrist in American Politics, 2024
Chapter Eight: Hildegard of Bingen: The Antichrist as Patriarchy
Conclusion: Be a Camel and Escape the Allurement of the Antichrist
Epilogue: Christ, Antichrist, and the 2024 Election
Afterword by Andrew Harvey
Appendix: MAGA’s Precarious Manhood vs. Authentic Masculinity
From the Foreword by Caroline Myss:
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.
From the Afterword by Andrew Harvey:
Matthew Fox is our living elder statesman of the authentic Christian mystical tradition. This book may be the most important of all the great and pioneering works he has graced us with over the decades, as our greatest living Christian theologian.
From a reader of the advance copy of the book, who is a mother and grandmother:
Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. The energy of the book is lingering. Realizing that I have felt this heaviness looming and didn’t know how to name it. You have named it and now I know what we are facing.
Very quick and concise read. Easy to follow and absorb. Startling to see it all woven together! This book and its author I believe will go down in history as the person and vehicle that dared to call out evil by its true name into the light of truth and justice. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit guides it into the hands of all those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Order today, and share!
You can order the paperback HERE. We already have requests of multiple copies for distribution so we are offering a 10% price reduction for 10 or more books, with free shipping.
Or, for immediate access, purchase the audiobook HERE.
I am personally asking each of you to help promote the book by GETTING THE WORD OUT to your family, friends, colleagues and organizations. Let this be our contribution to keeping America on a democratic trajectory by encouraging democracy over theocracy.
Gratefully,
Matthew Fox