The political theorist Eric Voegelin gave us the curious phrase “immanentising the eschaton”.
It was subsequently popularised by the great American conservative, William F Buckley Jr, who, among many other accomplishments, created then led for decades the once great magazine, National Review. It means, in plain-speak, the attempt by secularists and utopians to create paradise here and now. We don’t believe in the afterlife. So, we must make what religionists take to be heaven work for us here and now.
As Wikipedia has it:
In political theory and theology, to immanentize the eschaton is a generally pejorative term referring to attempts to bring about utopian conditions in the world, and to effectively create heaven on earth.
The eschaton is the end of history. In the way of modern man, who can do literally anything, with science and technology – see under artificial intelligence, controlling the climate, stopping viruses in their tracks – we can simply bring forward to our own time the achievement of nirvana.
Behind every revolutionary and progressivist social reformer lies the idea that man is perfectible through legislation and re-education. It is a powerful, appealing and ultimately flawed and destructive way of thought. And it is responsible for the greatest disasters in history. Nazism and communism are the most cited examples.
For Voegelin, it was simply the modern re-incarnation of Gnosticism, an ancient heresy.
Gnosticism emphasized personal spiritual knowledge above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.
In other words, we are in charge.
The morally bankrupt idiots who now control the world think that this is a doddle. It is Tower of Babel level pride. And as Jews and Christians and many others know, pride is the greatest human sin. Adam and Eve, famously, were the first among many victims. Managerialists and meritocrats are adherents. Everything can be sorted through “management”. And in its Nietzschean version, we are empowered to tear down “what is” in order to create, from scratch, what we believe “could be”. This forms the basis of much contemporary political thinking and action. The French and Russian revolutions come readily to mind. Marx was its champion in the nineteenth century, Lenin was its champion in the twentieth.
Well, it turns out that creating the earth in the image of heaven is only one of two contemporary ruling fallacies. Now we are also trying to recreate heaven in the image of the earth. Heaven is merely an extension of the world. We witness it every time someone who is much loved dies. We assume, without remotely believing in the “heaven” portrayed in the scriptures, that everyone who we think is “cool” ends up in heaven. This is a theological position, called universalism – the belief that everyone will be saved – held by writers such as David Bentley Hart.
But its bastardised, secular version is that we will all end up in a good place, re-united with our loved ones in one endless party or re-union. Hence the expression, “ he has gone to the great (insert noun appropriate to the deceased’s earthly activities) in the sky”.
On this view, God becomes merely “an optional extra”, a little like the portrayal of matters religious in the indispensable episode of Yes Prime Minister, The Bishop’s Gambit.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5t4iz7
The other week, Melbourne lost one of its more colourful and widely loved Catholic priests, Fr Bob Maguire. The priest that non-believers esteemed, probably because he was seen, rightly or wrongly, to have bucked the Catholic establishment. The anti-Pell, if you will. Leftie (of course), knockabout, dissident. Offered a state funeral (naturally). With almost indecent haste, it might be thought.
“Victorians will be invited to celebrate the life of Father Bob Maguire at a state funeral, honouring the people’s priest’s generosity, kindness, humour and service to the state,” Andrews said.
https://7news.com.au/news/vic/father-bob-maguire-to-be-remembered-at-state-funeral-c-10453261
Highly visible fighter for “social justice”. Media personality. If you have to have Catholic priests, well Bob was your guy. The people’s priest. Only a Chinese Communist Party operative like Daniel Andrews could come up with that line.
Fr Bob dedicated his life to charitable works and gained a reputation as a candid commentator unafraid to speak his mind or call out church leaders.
The Catholic priest was known for his work with disadvantaged people in his South Melbourne parish and appeared regularly in the media.
Fr Bob balanced his media commitments and parish duties until he was forced to retire from the Catholic Church in 2012.
A martyr as well, then. Cruelly cut down. The Guardian, on cue, referred to his tireless activism. There are Catholics that even The Guardian loves.
Variously described as a maverick, a “kick-arse dude in a robe” and an “anti-Catholic lowlife”, the Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire became the darling of the people – and the media – for his community work and his often acerbic statements delivered with humour, irreverence and hyperbole.
… At 77, having spent 38 years as priest of St Peter and Paul in South Melbourne, Maguire found himself without a parish. He had declined a request from then archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, to retire at 75 but fought the church for two years before giving way. Maguire vigorously contested allegations by the church that he had mismanaged parish funds.
He even has a web site. (Naturally).
http://www.fatherbob.com.au/
A little self-referential, perhaps. And a foundation. With a “secular” mission. And a biography (by Sue Williams, 2013).
https://suewilliams.com.au/father-bob-the-larrikin-priest/
The larrikin priest. Almost a cliché. One feels for all the non “larrikin” priests who just go about their daily business doing God’s work. Quietly, without celebrity status. God doesn’t seem ever to be mentioned when discussing Bob.
Let us ignore all the hype and acknowledge that Bob was simply doing his day job as a priest in caring for souls. As all priests do, or should. Caring for the under-privileged? Sure, as the parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us. But there is more to Bob’s secular saint status, and, not surprisingly, it might well have something to do with the late George Pell.
https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/father-bob-lashes-out-at-cardinal-pell-ng-ya-142175
This is Victoria, after all. The offer of a State funeral is simply one more opportunity to give George the bird.
The point of mentioning Bob at all is to note the reaction of a local (Central Coast New South Wales) priest, who in a recent homily felt the need to draw attention to Bob’s passing by suggesting that “heaven won’t be the same with Bob’s arrival”.
Whoa.
First, we have no idea about Bob’s eternal destination, though we all pray for his soul. Assuming eternal salvation or punishment for any soul is not our job. More importantly, sorry Father, but Bob’s possible arrival will not change heaven. Heaven is about God, not about us. And certainly not about Bob. This priest is simply adding to the emergent demonic tendency to reduce heaven to our conception of earthy paradise. (Incidentally, the same priest who eulogised Bob had this to say (in another homily) about the passing of George Cardinal Pell, Australia’s greatest ever Church leader. “Someone asked me the other day about what I thought about George Pell’s funeral. I said that I thought it would probably last about three hours…”)
Does any of this matter? Well, yes, it does.
It is all of a piece with immanentising the eschaton. The mirror image. It is poor theology, and poor theology doesn’t help us at all. It is lazy thinking by a society now devoid of critical faculties and knowledge of things it pretends to understand and pronounce on. Seeking to make heaven on earth is misguided, disastrous even. It pretends that the State, the modern replacement for God, can determine what is best for us all. F A Hayek called this the “fatal conceit”. It assumes that the State can determine what is “just”, for example. It excuses all sorts of pretensions that have diabolical effects on people. It crushes freedoms and rights in the name of some preferred ideology. It turns citizens into vassals. We have only to look at the past three years to see what this looks like.
As Tucker Carlson (much in the news at present) has said, the progressives that now form the ruling class are the real evangelicals these days. We are all born to be religious. Whether or not it is God in which we believe. And the new religionists are especially aggressive in their endeavours. They leave no stone unturned in their efforts at recruitment and enforcement.
But re-making heaven in earth’s image is far, far worse. It isn’t just a casual, self-serving, clueless blunder. It is blasphemy. It is messing with things that we don’t fully comprehend. And it diminishes the eternal and the sacred. It reduces the transcendent to, well, something not remotely transcendent. We are re-making God and His kingdom in our pathetic image. It is actively participating in the attempted death of God. A truly Nietzschean project. And one in which the Premier of Victoria (for example) fervently believes.
May Fr Bob Maguire rest in eternal peace.
Paul Collits
26 April 2023
I don't know how Bob Maguire would have responded. But if Danfuhrer sang my praises in public, I'd feel dirty enough to spend a week in a hot bath.
Believe in and give your life to Jesus, be saved and then you will look forward to experiencing heaven God's version one day, it will be the best decision of your life. Why settle for a man made version when everything on this earth is broken, the majority or people are not truly happy and where only a few elites and the wealthy get to really enjoy the world's idealised version of heaven, the rest of the population only get the scraps or what they are allowed to have according to the elites agenda or what they can afford. The way the world is going time is running out and I can't see secular people living today experiencing anything like heaven as they imagine it to be in their minds, with the wars, famines, pestilences, weather events, cost of living pressures going on. You get to choose which heaven you end up enjoying, make the right choice while you can.