What is The Forest Rebellion?
The Forest Rebellion is a blog that seeks to follow in the footsteps of Ernst Jünger (1895-1998), especially his recommendations that appear in his 1951 book The Forest Passage. In it, Jünger formulates the archetype of the Forest Rebel, who navigates the modern world by tapping into the “three great powers,” as he calls them: art, philosophy, and theology. The goal of all my writing is to explore how we can live well in modernity and work towards something which reflects more closely the Kingdom of God, knowing it cannot be fully attained on this earth. I am most concerned with the intersection of politics and theology, and with navigating the effects and dangers of technology from a Catholic perspective.
Why and How Ought We Rebel?
One of the prevailing themes throughout Jünger’s work is the idea that the modern world, far from actually progressing, is stuck in a dead-end cycle. Social bonds have been broken, the family has been torn apart, the human person has been degraded and atomized, technology has worked more to enslave man than to free him, and politics is ordered towards increasing the power of a few for the purposes of control and personal gain, rather than towards human flourishing and the common good. Religion is under attack, truth is said to be relative, and culture is degenerating at a rapid pace. Instead of taking a merely conservative or reactionary stance, which Jünger sees as a losing position, we must break fresh ground. It is not enough to simply go back to some former time, tempting as that may be. We can approach the future in a variety of ways and take various courses of action, but Jünger’s method is best captured by his archetype of the “Forest Rebel” in The Forest Passage and his figure the “Anarch,” developed in Eumeswil.
Jünger wrote favorably of Christianity several times throughout his writings, especially in his book The Peace, where he lays out a vision for post-war Europe built upon the Church and Christian morality. Jünger himself converted to Catholicism late in his life, which, far from discrediting his faith, adds to it, since he remained lucid till the end and saw conversion as the penultimate act of his life, the final step that all his work led him towards. Therefore, I, myself a Catholic, firmly believe that orthodox Christianity is the only way out, and the only true basis for society.
Why Subscribe?
Subscription allows you to get full access to The Forest Rebellion newsletter and website. Subscribing ensures that all my content reaches you and also signals your support for this project. All my work is free, and I plan to keep it that way.
