"We Shall Unleash the Nihilists & the Atheists"

Read the ArticleThis text presents Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose’s seminal essay, “Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age,” which systematically analyzes the stages and manifestations of Nihilism, viewing it as the fundamental spiritual illness of the modern era. The essay argues that the progressive abandonment of absolute Christian Truth leads society through distinct phases: Liberalism (indifference to truth), Realism (hostility to metaphysical truth), and Vitalism (a restless, often irrational search for spiritual substitutes), culminating in the Nihilism of Destruction. Rose asserts that this trajectory of unbelief and worldliness actively seeks to destroy the “Old Order” founded on God and His Revelation, creating a void that inevitably points toward the Antichrist and the construction of a purely human, absurd “new earth” devoid of ultimate meaning. Additionally, the excerpts include an appendix exploring the “Philosophy of the Absurd” as the ultimate logical consequence of nihilistic thought, alongside the author’s proposed outline for a larger theological work.Nihilism: Root of the Modern RevolutionThis excerpt from Eugene Rose’s “Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age” presents a powerful diagnosis of the spiritual crisis of the modern world, tracing the decline of Christian Truth through distinct stages of nihilism. Rose details a dialectic beginning with Liberalism, characterized by indifference to absolute truth and a focus on worldliness, which then gives way to the more hostile and simplistic Realism (or positivism) that annihilates spiritual values. The next stage, Vitalism, is marked by popular restlessness, pseudo-religious impulses, and a frenzied, sometimes destructive, quest for life, culminating in the Nihilism of Destruction and its inverted, Satanic parody of creation. Rose ultimately argues that the abandonment of God leads to a world of the Absurd, compelling modern man to seek a “new man” and a kingdom centered on nihil, which serves as a dark precursor to the reign of Antichrist.“[..] Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion… We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil.” ~ Confederate General Albert Pike to Giuseppe Mazzini dated August 15th, 1871 (The text was first confirmed to exist by Myron Fagan in his Vinyl Recordings made in 1967) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theofficialurban.substack.com/subscribe