This substantial aphoristic project, dating from 2004, derives its title from the first book in the sextet, namely 'Father Omega's Last Testament', which rather sets the tone for what follows while simultaneously harking back to the previous project, the so-called Free Testament Quartet (2003-4), which featured a number of 'testaments' to the ideological philosophy of Social Theocracy and its concern with the concept of religious sovereignty conceived as an ultimate sovereignty that, in the event of mass endorsement, would lead to a context analogous to 'Kingdom Come', to use traditional terminology. Such terminology would not have much applicability, however, to a society characterized by Social Theocracy, but it helps, nonetheless, to draw on traditional Christian or Bible-inspired concepts when they can be seen to portend what would stand up to logical scrutiny as the best possible resolution or, rather, re-interpretation of them, since one has to work within parameters that suggest a link with the past as well as the possibility of extending beyond it on terms that would not, as is often the case at present, be at axial variance with it. Hopefully, these six books of aphoristic philosophy succeed in doing just that, as well as in investigating history and, in particular, the dialectical process from several new angles that outflank anything attempted by philosophers like Engels and Marx, who did not have the benefit of a Social Theocratic analysis to draw upon. In fact, Marx's interpretation of history in terms of dialectical materialism gets little sympathy or further encouragement here, in this immense project, since it manifestly fails to match-up to the sort of criteria that derive not from state-hegemonic but from church-hegemonic traditions, being the product, by and large, of a disposition that would be un-Catholic, to say the least. Analogies with Marx there certainly are here, but the investigation of the dialectical process is much deeper and broader, involving both gender and class as well as civilization and, to begin with, the concept of what has been called synthetic attraction, which should become sufficiently intelligible by the time one reaches the fourth book not to require any additional explanation here. Suffice it to say, even with its shortcomings (the term 'classlessness' is one I am less disposed to these days, though not from a class standpoint), this is one of my more significant projects, and should provide more than enough ideological sustenance to those who, from ethnic predilections, can be expected to be more disposed to Social Theocracy and its promise of a better outcome to the historical process than could be envisaged from standpoints axially at variance with church-hegemonic traditions. Father Omega may not be a Catholic priest, but he is certainly someone for whom the promise of metaphysical redemption continues to ring true, and now more than ever. – A Centretruths editorial.
Copyright © 2024 PHILOSOPHICAL eBOOKS BY JOHN O'LOUGHLIN
