Abstract
Eric Hobsbawm famously helped develop the concept of an invented tradition. Where something may appear traditional, use traditional symbols and language, it may still yet be a modern political project—invented to achieve modern political results. This essay analyzes a species of reactionary far-right politics which utilizes and sometimes criticizes Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. Specifically engaged in the promotion of white identitarianism against encroaching Islamism, liberalism, and globalism, these political actors have invented forms of Christianity which would be otherwise alien to their historical counterparts. In this essay non-Christian thinkers such as Julius Evola are analyzed alongside cultural Christians such as Anders Breivik and explicit Christian identitarians such as Brenton Tarrant, both of whom are famous for terrorist acts in defense of “western civilization.” This essay seeks to historically contextualize their claims and shed light on how seemingly traditional symbols, concepts, or historical episodes are ahistorical and thoroughly modern.
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Notes
- 1.
For an academic overview on this kind of thinking for traditionalists, see: Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). This is the best book on the subject and still holds up well. For these particular slogans, see: Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World (Rochester, VT: Inner Tradition Publishers, 1995); George Lincoln Rockwell, This Time, the World (Revisionist Books, 2018); “Return to Tradition” is a generic meme traditionalists and white supremacists use to agitate against modernism, liberalism, and globalism. It is used often online. For a recent treatment on the relationship between far-right politics and Traditionalism, see: Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, War for Eternity: Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers (New York: Dey Street Books, 2020). This excellent book covers contemporary and global connections especially focusing on Steve Bannon and his relationship to Traditionalism. This text is especially good at explaining the impact (or lack of) Julius Evola had on Bannon’s general worldview.
- 2.
Eric Hobsbawm, “Introduction: Inventing Traditions,” in The Invention of Tradition, ed. Hobsbawm and Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983; 21st edition, 2013).
- 3.
James Simpson, Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019). For a brief overview of this trend, see: Mikkel Thorup, “‘A World Without Substance’ Carl Schmitt and the Counter-Enlightenment,” Distinktion 10 (2005), 20–26. For Joseph de Maistre and his historical outlook, see: Emile Perreau-Saussine, “Why Maistre became Ultramontane,” in Joseph de Maistre and the Legacy of Enlightenment, ed. Carolina Armenteros and Richard A. Lebrun (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, 2011), 147–59. See also: Juan Donoso Cortés, Essays in Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism: Considered in their Fundamental Principles, transl. William McDonald (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2017); Carl Schmitt, The Necessity of Politics: An Essay on the Representative Idea in the Church and Modern Europe (Essays in Order) (Volume 5), transl. Christopher Dawson (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2017); and especially Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-revolution (The American TFP, Third Edition, 2008). These thinkers, it must be noted, are not like contemporary racist traditionalists. They are much more focused on the problems internal to Catholicism, the spread of liberalism as a vehicle for modernity, and the question of Order-itself; not about the supremacy of specific races or a Christianized hierarchy which justifies them.
- 4.
Eric Hobsbawm, “Introduction: Inventing Traditions,” in The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983; 21st edition, 2013), 4.
- 5.
Eric Hobsbawm, The Invention of Tradition, 7–8.
- 6.
Ibid., 9.
- 7.
Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 52–54. Huntington makes a compelling point with an analysis of popular literature in the post-Cold War world. Using Lexis/Nexis he catalogued how in 1988 the New York Times, Washington Post, and Congressional Records all shifted dramatically by 1993 in their description of us versus them. Where in 1988 the term “Free World” was generically used to mean us, by 1993 it was overwhelmingly switched to “The West.” What this demonstrated to Huntington was a switch from a geopolitical category to a civilizational category. Whereas before the term “Free World” implied that others were not free, the terminology of the West does no such thing. It only merely implies there is something other-than the West and not necessarily what those other things are. Further, and even more interestingly, the distinction between Orthodox and Western civilization is of paramount importance, because he considers Orthodox civilization “distinct from Western Christendom,” broadly proving where his head is at when it comes to what the West is—it is a Christian Euro-American civilization which inherited its legacy from Rome but specifically not Eastern Rome. Indeed, he himself is telling us the important relationship of the concept of Christendom with “the West.”
- 8.
Franco Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy: Radical Right in Italy After the War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
- 9.
Bruce Hoffman, Right-Wing Terrorism in Europe (Rand Corporation, N-1856-AF).
- 10.
Martin Laryš and Miroslav Mareš, “Right Wing Extremist Violence in the Russian Federation,” Europe-Asia Studies 63 (2011): 129–54.
- 11.
Tore Bjørgo and Heléne Lööw, Racist Violence in Europe (London: MacMillan Press, 1993), 62.
- 12.
Franco Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy After the War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 44.
- 13.
Luigi Sturzo, Nationalism and Internationalism (New York: Roy Publishers, 1946) 85–91. For Sturzo, “Statal Monism” applies to state-worship which manifests itself in the nation (Fascism), race (Nazism ), and in class (Communism). This was a common argument for Catholic internationalists such as Sturzo and Jacques Maritain.
- 14.
Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
- 15.
Paul Furlong, The Social and Political Thought of Julius Evola (London: Routledge, 2011).
- 16.
Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World (Rochester: Inner Traditions International, 1969).
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Bradley L. Herling, The German Gita: Hermeneutics and Discipline in the German Reception of Indian Thought, 1778–1831 (New York: Routledge Press, 2006).
- 19.
Elisabetta Cassini Wolff, “Evola’s Interpretation of Fascism and Moral Responsibility,” Patterns of Prejudice 50/4-5 (2016): 478–94.
- 20.
Stephen Atkins, Encyclopedia of Modern Extremists and Modern Extremist Groups (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004), 89.
- 21.
Julius Evola, Metaphysics of War: Battle, Victory, and Death in the World of Tradition (London: Arktos Press, 2011), 39.
- 22.
Ibid., 40.
- 23.
William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of Radical Christianity (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012).
- 24.
Jonathan Fine, Political Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: From Holy War to Modern Terror (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
- 25.
Aspects of British Israelism and influences have also been traced to Richard Brothers in 1794, John Wilson’s Our Israelitish Origins (1840s), and John Pym Yeatman’s The Shemetic Origin of the Nations of Western Europe (1879). In 1875, J. C. Gawler published Our Scythian Ancestors, which is considered an influential text to the British Israel movement.
- 26.
Patience Strong, Someone Had to Say It (London: Bachman & Turner, 1986), 86.
- 27.
Anti-Defamation League. Christian Identity: Extremism, Terrorism, and Bigotry. https://www.adl.org/education/resources/backgrounders/christian-identity. Accessed: 5 May, 2017.
- 28.
Southern Poverty Law Center, Creativity Movement. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/creativity-movement-0. Accessed: 5 May, 2017.
- 29.
Ben Klassen, “Revolutionary Leadership,” Article originally in RACIAL LOYALTY # 81… 19AC (1992) http://creativitymovementtoronto.blogspot.com/2013/04/klassens-teachings-revolutionary.html.
- 30.
Helene Lööw, “The Cult of Violence: The Swedish Racist Counterculture,” in Racist Violence in Europe, edited by Tore Bjørgo and Rob Witte (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993), 64–79.
- 31.
Ibid., 68.
- 32.
Ibid., Published in Anghangarbulletinen.
- 33.
Jeffrey Kaplan, “Religiosity and the Radical Right,” in Nation and Race: The Developing Euro-American Racist Subculture, edited by Tore Bjørgo and Jeffrey Kaplan (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998).
- 34.
Ben Klassen, RaHoWa: This Planet is All Ours (Otto, NC: Church of the Creator, 1987). Specifically see the section on RoHoWa and its full ramifications.
- 35.
Tore Bjørgo, The Dynamics of a Terrorist Targeting Process: Anders B Breivik and the 22 July Attacks in Norway (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 2.
- 36.
Ibid., 3–5.
- 37.
“Norway killings: Breivik posted hate-filled video on YouTube hours before attacks,” The Daily Telegraph. 24 July 2011.
- 38.
“Anders Breivik Manifesto: Shooter/Bomber Downplayed Religion, Secular Influence Key.” International Business Times. https://www.ibtimes.com/anders-breivik-manifesto-shooterbomber-downplayed-religion-secular-influence-key-817273. Accessed: 14 August, 2020.
- 39.
Massimo Introvigne, “The Identity Ideology of Anders Breivik. Not a Christian Fundamentalist,” CESNUR. https://www.cesnur.org/2011/mi-oslo-en.html. Accessed: 14 August, 2020. At first, the media called Anders Behring Breivik a Christian fundamentalist, some of them even a Roman Catholic. This shows the cavalier use of the word “fundamentalist” prevailing today in several quarters.
- 40.
Daniel Blake, “Norway Bombing, Killings: Arrested ‘Fundamentalist Christian’ Anders Behring Breivik Reveals Hatred of Modern-Day Church in Blogs,” The Christian Post (23 July, 2011). https://www.christianpost.com/news/norway-massacre-fundamentalist-christian-killer-reveals-hatred-of-modern-church-in-blogs.html. Accessed: 14 August, 2020.
- 41.
PEGIDA stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes). PEGIDA has been frequently linked to the more moderate but still anti-Islamic political party AFD (Alternative für Deutschland).
- 42.
Shafik Mandhai, “UK Places Ban on ‘White Jihad’ Neo-Nazi Group,” in Al-Jazeera. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/uk-bans-white-jihad-neo-nazi-group-161212010008907.html.
- 43.
Knights Templar International, Ethos. http://knightstemplarinternational.com/ethos/. Accessed: 5 May, 2017. Currently a 502 Bad Gateway. Registered as https://www.knightstemplarorder.com/ethos. Accessed 30 July, 2020.
- 44.
International Report Bigotry and Fascism, “Knights Templar International: Christian Knights or Fascist Front?” http://irbf.org.uk/knights-templar-international-analysis/. Accessed: 5 May, 2017.
- 45.
Michael Sells, “Serbian Religious Nationalism, Christoslavism, and the Genocide in Bosnia, 1992–1995,” in Religion and the War in Bosnia, edited by Paul Mojzes (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998), 198.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Ibid., 65.
- 48.
Dragoljub Djordjevic, “Serbian Orthodox Church and the War,” in Religion and the War in Bosnia, edited by Paul Mojzes (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998), 162.
- 49.
Paul Mojzes, “The Camouflaged Role of Religion in the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina” in Religion and the War in Bosnia, edited by Paul Mojzes (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998), 87.
- 50.
Norma Percy, The Death of Yugoslavia. Documentary, 1995. At timestamp 4: 54:31. BBC One.
- 51.
Ishaan Tharoor, “The warped history that fuels right-wing terrorism,” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/03/22/warped-history-that-fuels-right-wing-terrorism/.
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Dedon, T.G. (2021). From Julius Evola to Anders Breivik: The Invented Tradition of Far-Right Christianity. In: Mannion, G., Doyle, D.M., Dedon, T.G. (eds) Ecumenical Perspectives Five Hundred Years After Luther’s Reformation. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68360-3_6
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