The fascist Jesus : Ernest Renan's Vie de Jesus and the theological origins of fascism.

My study of Renan and his Vie de Jésus is an attempt to answer the question of how the “quest of the historical Jesus” contributed to the formation of Fascist political theology. It is a study of why and how the “Academic Jesus” of scientifically trained scholars became the “Fascist Jesus” of politicians like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Through a detailed examination of Renan’s Vie and his other writings, I propose that fascism was not the result of an excess of irrationality, but rather an excess of Modern rationalism resulting from the late Medieval and early modern rejection of the ancient mystical epistemology and ontology expressed in both Socratic philosophy and Judeo-Christian theology. Second, I argue that Renan’s and other modern scholars’ (e.g., Jakob Hauer and Walter Grundmann) anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism did not stem from any orthodox Christian affiliation, but rather from their embracing of a revival of the Marcionite heresy and Enlightenment idealism. Taken as a whole, my work is an argument for viewing the problem of Christian theology, the “historical Jesus,” and the origins of fascism as the resurgence of a non-liturgical, neo-Sophism and its rejection of ancient mystical, participatory rationality centered in the Church’s worship of Jesus Christ. Positively, I am arguing that the orthodox ecclesial-mystical Jesus is the “historical” Jesus—and the only Jesus capable of restraining the monsters of Modern Western political science—whether of Fascism, or any yet to come; this is the only Jesus upon which a sustainable life-giving polity can be founded.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mth

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Lentz, Ralph E. II.

• B Athroniaeth (Cyffredinol)
• BR Cristnogaeth
• JC Damcaniaeth wleidyddol

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:352