Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the greatest thinkers in modern history, will always be remembered simply for this statement: \u201cGod is dead.\u201d The current geopolitical nationalistic fundamentalism, or \u201cNew Faith\u201d could be seen as a response to the statement. In the United States far-right politicians are Christianizing their platforms and deifying their agenda. Regardless of motive, it seems their mission is to combat the statement \u201cGod is dead\u201d with its opposite statement, God is alive. However, in its attempt to vanquish secularism and any existential anxiety, it is becoming the very evil it seeks to destroy.<\/p>\n
Jordan B. Peterson speaks on this in his podcast which highlights Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. Peterson states, when one structure fails, one possibility that results is nihilism, that is the belief that nothing has any final meaning. Another possibility, Peterson explains, is that one simply adopts the next structure that gives life meaning and that is often a nationalistic separatist perspective.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in his 1983 speak \u201cMen Have Forgotten God\u201d states, \u201cAll attempts to find a way out of the plight of today\u2019s world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain [\u2026] We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n In a culture revenged by communist ideology and its systemic implementation which sought to annihilate Christianity, I fully agree. The state should not, and more importantly cannot, extinguish the fire of the Divine Presences from the human soul. However, at least in the United States, and possibly many Western European nations today, this statement may well be something you\u2019d hear from the podium of a Trump rally, a MAGA Republican gubernatorial candidate, or a far-right city council member. The men have forgotten God<\/em> mantra is being used to implement sweeping legislation to control women\u2019s bodies, to dictate marriage equality, to limit freedoms of all kinds including voting rights, access the healthcare, and public education. Just today I heard a Tennessee lawmaker say, in effect, that God had given Parkinson\u2019s disease to one of her political opponents and cancer to another. In her framework, those men had forgotten God, so they got what they deserved.<\/p>\n So, is our greatest existential threat in the West, Marxism? Is it postmodernism, atheism, or nihilism? Is it \u201cWokeness\u201d as N.S. Lyons suggests?[3]<\/a> I humbly suggest it is Christian Nationalism, or more broadly theocratic totalitarianism that, in its existential anxiety, fears \u201cGod is dead\u201d and forcibly and brutally fashions a new god in its own image.<\/p>\n So, how then shall we live? Of course, I look to my own \u201cdesert fathers\u201d Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. Campbell writes, \u201c[\u2026]half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result, we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.\u201d[4]<\/a> Certainly one could argue this quote is reductive poetry, but I see it offering a lens to our current plight. What atheists and dogmatic believers may have in common is their theological certitude, and such certitude leads to extremist ideologies, and exclusionary theologies.<\/p>\n Carl Jung, in Psychology of Religion<\/em> writes, \u201cA\u00a0creed\u00a0is always the result and fruit of many minds and many centuries, purified from all oddities, shortcomings and flaws of individual experience.\u201d This brings us back to Solzhenitsyn\u2019s quote, \u201cWe must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society.\u201d The Jungian and Solzhenitsynian perspectives draw us inward, not in a reductive sense, but so that we may rediscover the imago Dei<\/em>, the Self, the Divine Light. This inward movement necessarily moves outward, but it does not coerce conformity, legislate morality, or dogmatize theology-instead it creates space for Christ in the other, and the other\u2019s experience. It is here that God is re-membered.<\/p>\n On a final note, I realize I do not have a true geopolitical perspective, bias or unbiased. I used to be an avid reader of BBC News<\/a>, but it tends to elevate Western concerns, though certainly not more than American news outlets. I frequent the TN Holler<\/a> for local news in my home state of Tennessee. Tennessee has swung far right, so this outlet tends to seek accountability for ultra conservative legislators. To be honest, I am not sure what an unbiased perspective should look like in the face of fascism and the surge of Christian nationalism. Thoughts?<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Dr Jordan Peterson, \u201cS3 E29: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Existentialism),\u201d Jordan Peterson, October 26, 2020, https:\/\/www.jordanbpeterson.com\/podcast\/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-existentialism\/.<\/a><\/p>\n [2] \u201cRemembering Solzhenitsyn\u2019s \u2018Men Have Forgotten God\u2019 Speech,\u201d National Review<\/em> (blog), December 11, 2018, https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2018\/12\/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-men-have-forgotten-god-speech\/.<\/a><\/p>\n