Olympianism
We don’t often consider that to apostate hearts, the first creed of the Christian Faith, “Jesus is Lord,” demands rival kingships.
Dear friends and supporters,
Olympianism brings to mind the recently completed summer Olympic Games, but this is not my meaning, although the two ideas are not unrelated. By Olympianism I mean the vision of elite individuals and often groups that see themselves as cosmic overlords, the rightful rulers of an unruly world that requires the wise, the intelligent, the strong, the shrewd, and the disinterested — privileged people like them — to govern it.1 The term derives from the Twelve Olympians, the leading gods of ancient Greece, including the most well-known today: Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon. They were called Olympians because they were thought to rule from Mount Olympia. The Olympic Games were instituted about 3000 years ago in Greece partly to pay homage to these divine overlords.
Olympianism, however, at least in spirit, did not begin in ancient Greece. The pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, and Caesar Augustus were all Olympians. Each saw himself as a rightful ruler of the known world, and therefore, each was committed to forcible territorial expansion. Olympians are not content peacefully to rule their own tribe or nation; they are empire-builders. It should come as no surprise that they all were considered, and considered themselves, demigods. Part of what it means to be divine is to rule as sovereign, and the longing for sovereign rule is what made them what they were.
Ideological Olympianism
In the contemporary world, Olympianism is almost always of an ideological species: ideological Olympianism. An ideology is a comprehensive way of understanding and structuring the world; it has ready-at-hand answers for all the great questions of life and society and how to solve the problems they manifest. It is a historical phenomenon that came about only as a result of the Enlightenment, when men became convinced that reason is the highest standard for humanity. Therefore, the comprehensive, rational society must be the superior society. Its first large-scale political manifestation was the French Revolution, which was also the first large movement in history for social justice. Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great were Olympians, but not ideological, and thus they weren’t at all interested in liberty, fraternity, and equality for all as the French Revolution claimed to be. Indeed, the practice of slavery was part of every ancient Olympian society.
Ideological Olympians, by contrast, are committed above all else to creating the perfect world for every human inhabitant — except perhaps for those who aggressively resist their grand totalizing vision. For this reason Olympians gravitate toward cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitans, and resent patriotism and patriots. The mere region or nation is too small a canvas on which to paint their majestic vision of cosmic justice.
This is a book about what revolution is, how it came about, how it is transpiring right before our eyes, and what Christians can do to arrest and overcome it. This book presupposes the necessity of Christian society, not just Christian families and churches, foundational though they are. It addresses topics as diverse as the culture war, the separation of church and state, the altered meaning of liberalism, the true objectives of progressivism, the human types that make statism necessary, and the blight of political soteriology.
Get the book here.
Today, unlike in the ancient world, Olympians are not birthed into a royal family, do not rise up through the military ranks, and do not gain Olympian status by procuring massive wealth. Rather, they’re suckled on the Olympian creed in elite colleges and universities where they almost invariably encounter it in Leftist professors who, while not Olympians themselves, long for an Olympian world that privileges the intellectual elite.
That world is under the surveillance, tutelage, and coercion of men (and women) like Barak Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Bill Gates, George Soros, Emmanuel Macron, and Judith Butler, who are working for the just and sinless world, where justice is identified as the “right to reproductive freedom”; legal marriage between any two (or three or five) adults; genital-mutilating transgenderism, and where sin is defined as male leadership in family and church and culture, as legally limiting marriage to one man and one woman, and as personal property impervious to political depredation. The Olympians see themselves as the arbiter of the Just Society, and for that reason feel entitled to the coercive political leverage necessary to impose that justice.
The Christian-Olympian Conflict
Olympianism confronts biblical Christianity with a head-on conflict. We don’t often consider that to apostate hearts, the first creed of the Christian Faith, “Jesus is Lord,” demands rival kingships. Because the risen Christ is presently ruling over the cosmos from his Father’s right hand, the aspirations of the Olympians contest the precise territory over which our Lord exercises authority. For Christians, therefore, there can never be a thought of, “We will leave the Olympians alone if they leave us alone,” precisely because their cosmic vision cannot afford to leave us alone.
In such a tense climate, Christians are often tempted to retreat to their own spiritual-intellectual-emotional interior or, at best, their family or church. This is the form of retreatism or quietism that does not challenge the Olympians at the very root of their apostate ambition. It is not enough for families and churches to stand for Christ’s authority within their own sphere. They must recognize that the apostate root of Olympianism is the desire for cosmic jurisdiction, which requires the dethroning of the rightful cosmic Lord.
The Christian’s anti-Olympian calling is summarized in the Great Commission: the Father has delegated to the Son all power, not just in heaven, but also on earth. He has charged his disciples with discipling the nations by the royal Gospel, by baptism, and by biblical instruction. This demands the dethronement of all rival Kings, and the biblical gospel is, in fact, the stripping of all cosmic kingship aside from Jesus Christ’s.
Personal
Last weekend I was privileged to dedicate the Dr. Ron Smith Library at Church of the King-McAllen Texas (Ron is the founding pastor and my dear friend) and to deliver Sunday morning the ordination charge to the newest elder, Fred Beall. I had a small part in overseeing the founding of this church 23 years ago, and it has grown into a strong and vibrant body, influencing the Rio Grande Valley for Jesus Christ.
I’m finalizing the essay collection The Sanctified State: Politics in the Christian Worldview. David Bahnsen, Joe Boot, George Grant, Brian Mattson, Levi Secord, Jeffery Ventrella and I are contributing. There are many (too many) books on Christianity and politics, but few of them begin with the standpoint of the Christian worldview. This one will.
The CCL annual symposium this year will be December 7 in the San Francisco Bay Area, as always. There’s no cost for attendance, but it’s by invitation only, so please contact me privately if you wish to attend.
Attendance is capped, and we expect to be at capacity again this year.
The theme is: “Election 2024 and 2060.” We’ll be addressing such topics as: What just happened in the election, and where do we go from here? What in the world has happened to the Democratic Party? What in the world has happened to the Republican Party? What have been the consequences of the end of Roe and the beginning of Dobbs? What do we need to do in culture today to assure political victories in the future? And much, much more.
Presenters include David Bahnsen, Brian Mattson, Jeffery Ventrella, and me; but this is a symposium, not a conference, and everybody will get a chance to talk.
The day includes a continental breakfast and a catered gourmet lunch. The time is 9 am to 3 pm. The venue is a gorgeous Bayfront hotel, but we don’t advertise the location on social media for obvious reasons. Airport shuttle to the hotel is quick and easy, and we get special hotel rates for those wishing to stay on Friday and/or Saturday night.
If you’ve already contacted me to reserve your place, you don’t need to contact me again, but if you do wish to attend and I haven’t heard from you, please contact me privately. There are about 20 seats open as I write these lines.
Thank you for reading. Please consider sharing this post if you will, and subscribe if you haven’t yet.
Yours for the cosmic Lord,
Founder & President, Center for Cultural Leadership
Isaiah 49:1–2
More great stuff
The Center for Cultural Leadership site is here.
My Amazon author page (print and digital) is here.
My I-Tunes sermons, lectures and podcasts are here.
You can find my sermons and lectures at my YouTube channel.
Sign up to get my blog updates here.
Here’s my Twitter feed.
If you want to get the free exclusive hard copy publication Christian Culture, please send me a Facebook private message.
The CCL phone number is 831-420-7230.
The mailing address is:
Center for Cultural Leadership
P. O. Box 100
Coulterville, CA 95311
I borrow this language from Kenneth Minogue.