Evola on Christianity in Europe

December 31, 2007 on 12:57 pm | Friedrich Braun | Christianity , History , Political Philosophy , Religion | | Email This Post | Print this Post

Continuing the translation of the interview in La Nation Europeenne here.

Q. Do you believe that the influence of Christianity was positive for European civilisation? Don’t you think that having adopted a religion of Semitic origin has distorted certain traditional European values?

A. Speaking of Christianity, I often used the expression Gœthe
religion that came to prevail in the West. In fact the greatest
miracle of Christianity was succeeding in asserting itself among the
European peoples, even taking account the decadence into which numerous
traditions of these peoples had plunged. Nevertheless, we must not
forget the cases in which the Christianisation of the West was only
superficial. Besides, if Christianity has, without any doubt, altered
certain European values, there are also situations where these values
were revived by Christianity, by rectifying and modifying itself.
Otherwise, Catholicism would be inconceivable in its various
Roman aspects. In the same way a part of Medieval
civilisation would be inconceivable, with phenomena such as the
appearance of the great Knightly orders, Thomism, a certain mysticism
of
a high level (e.g., Meister Eckhart), the spirit of the Crusades, etc.
COMMENT

This is an important question and difficult to discuss due to certain
subtleties and emotional attachments. On the one hand, the return to a
decadent paganism, which can often take the form of a nature mysticism,
must be rejected. On the other hand, an ignorant anti-Catholicism will
make one miss those admirable phenomena mentioned by Evola.

These phenomena need to be studied from an Evolian point of view,
though it is difficult to imagine who would be capable of it. For
example, what was the animating spirit of the Knightly orders,
particularly the Knights Templar (whose heresy conviction has recently
been lifted)? Thomism represented a return to Greek and Roman
philosophy. Aquinas pretty much replaced Hebrew law with the Stoic
natural law. He also rejected the God of the Hebrews — the jealous
“old
man with a beard”– in favour of a God more like that of Aristotle and
Plato (even the Vedanta according to Guenon). The mystical trend of a
Meister Eckhart was based on transcendence and the affirmation of a
Self
above the human world.

By understanding how these values were “revived” in a Medieval
Christian
form, it will be possible to understand how to revive those values
again
in the contemporary context.

I would like to add that in the “Sintesi di dottrina della razza”,
Evola
writes about Gœthe great Aryan civilisations of the Orient, to
ancient Rome, to the Germano-Roman Middle Ages. (p 29)

Out of the ruins, will another arise?

9 Comments »

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  1. Yes, this is good. I want to point out Jerry Dell Ehrlich’s book, Plato’s Gift to Christianity. St. Thomas was in 1260AD. The Renaissance happened 200 years later and it was the Renaissance that brought back much of the Graeco-Roman Civilization. This is what Martin Luther, the Protestant rejected. Roman Catholicism is very European, carrying the old social and cultural stratum of pagan Europe.
    What happened is that Hellenism was the background and intellectual foundation of the Christianity. With the collapse of Western Civilization in the Dark Ages, much was lost and forgotten. As Evola points out, Aquinas is a factor in re-energizing the Pagan European aspects of Christianity. Mr. Ehrlich demonstrates that even more. Christianity is a Greek religion. Not Jewish.
    On the other hand, Protestantism is heavily Judiazied. It is Protestantism that has a Jewish mentality–not Roman Catholicism. So to condemn outright that Christianity is Jewish and a harm to Europe–has to clarify. Hillaire Belloc said, “The Faith is Europe and Europe the Faith”. There is a connection between Christianity and Europe.
    Finally, we see in the National Socialist movement in the German areas, wanted to do away with the basic foundation of Western and German law which was the Romans. Western Culture is an amalgamation of Hellenism, Romanitas, and Christianity.

    Comment by WLindsayWheeler — December 31, 2007 #

  2. No one cares about your Judeo-Christian mythology, Wheeler.

    Comment by Friedrich Braun — December 31, 2007 #

  3. And what about all those Cathedrals, churches, architecture, classical music, paintings of the last 2000 years of Western Culture? Mythology? Handell’s Messiah, one of the greatest works of Europe? Like an Atheist can create that? something so sublime and beautiful?
    All things of the New Order which National Socialism is a part of is all Nihilism. Nihilism always self destructs, time and time again.
    Mr. Braun, the Church will always be–national socialism will never live. Throne and Altar of Orthodox Russia, of Charlemagne, of the Byzantine Empire lasted over a 1000 years. Your national socialist experiment lasted allbeit 12 years. Russian communism lasted 80 years. All buried by the Church. The Church will live on Mr. Braun and it will bury you and your NS ideology.

    Comment by WLindsayWheeler — December 31, 2007 #

  4. I wonder what colour the sky is in the weird and wacky Wheelerworld. He believes in the amazing tales of the Jew-Book, wherein serpents dispense wisdom about the advisablity of apple consumption and even donkeys indulge in discourse with humans (”And the ass said to Balaam”, Numbers 22:30).

    There is simply no proof of life beyond this one and we must treat Wheeler’s preposterous beliefs in the manner we would were he to claim that his wife is beautiful and his children Mensa-material.

    Wheeler’s Church is bound for the annihilation and nothingness to which we are all undoubtedly headed, even our sun, which is itself destined for collapse and extinction, signifying the end of the party.

    Comment by Al Ross — December 31, 2007 #

  5. Dear Ross, It was Plato that taught the existence of the soul; and he taught the immortality of the soul. Christianity absorbed the teachings of Plato.

    Comment by WLindsayWheeler — January 2, 2008 #

  6. And where,precisely, is the soul located? Near the liver, perhaps, or maybe in your big toe?

    Comment by Al Ross — January 2, 2008 #

  7. Plato defines soul as “anything with self-movement”. The Greeks saw that all living flesh was nothing more than dead material. We are made up of 70% water, carbon and nitrogen, right? It is all dead. Well, something has to animate the dead material and it isn’t the dead material that is animating itself.

    Curious word that “animate”, isn’t? This is where we get the word “animal”. Both of these words are derived from the Latin word meaning breath which has a secondary meaning of Soul! Anima is the Latin word for Soul. It is “that which animates”. The Soul is incorpreal. All living things have souls, plants, animals, human beings, bacteria, fish, sponges, fungi, etc.

    If it is incorpreal, it is also deathless. It has no parts, can not be put to death. The Soul is immortal. It fills up the whole living thing. When the Soul departs the body, death comes to the body. The personality, the elan vital, the mind, are all located in the Soul.

    Comment by WLindsayWheeler — January 2, 2008 #

  8. Although, like every truly intelligent Aryan, the author of this article was an atheist, he indulgently allows for the historical fiction of soul existence:

    http://www.revilo-oliver.com/rpo/aryanrel.htm

    Comment by Al Ross — January 4, 2008 #

  9. Some may prefer the early Evola in this respect :

    “Christianity is at the root of the evil that has corrupted the West.
    This is the truth, and it does not admit uncertainty.

    (…) Christianity first infected the race of blonde Germanic
    barbarians, (…)

    The identification of our tradition with either the Christian or
    Catholic tradition is the most absurd of errors.”

    (from ‘Imperialismo pagano’, Atanor, Todi-Roma 1928)

    Comment by suumcuique — January 7, 2008 #

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