The Free Testament Quartet

ISBN-13: 9781523659388 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 298 str.

John O'Loughlin

Opis

The four books of aphoristic philosophy that constitute 'The Free Testament Quartet' date from 2003-4 and signify a further advance of John O'Loughlin's metaphysical philosophy beyond 'The Radical Progress Quartet' (2003). The first book, from which this quartet derives its name, was an attempt by the author to establish a testament, both personal and universal, that would be truly free, not, like the Christian New Testament, under the domination of the Judaic Old Testament within the Judeo-Christian tradition which, in Britain, is reflected in the King James Bible. This testament, although not strictly a testament in the Biblical sense (which testifies to Christ), testifies to what could be called the Superchristian nature of Social Theocracy which, deriving from Social Transcendentalism, as outlined in previous titles by the author, is conceived as the political face of an essentially religious doctrine and ideology concerned with the advancement of religious sovereignty and the bringing to pass, in society, of a context analogous to 'Kingdom Come', a term always interpreted in relation to such a sovereignty being, in a sense, paramount, if not exclusively representative of an ultimate societal arrangement that effectively transcends society as we know it, though not, of course, without mass consent premised upon what has been described as a majority mandate for such a sovereignty in the event of its being able to come to pass democratically in certain countries with the right kind of religious tradition - one necessarily axially aligned, so to speak, with Social Theocracy, as described in the text. Be that as it may, this 'testament' at least offers the prospect of a radically different and better future, one that, in the third and fourth books, follows from both revelationary ('revelatory' would be the standard adjective) and revolutionary concepts that, together with an eschatological 'judgement' in the fourth book, testify to the possibility of a new social order premised upon not greed and exploitation, but self-knowledge and, ultimately self-transcendence through religious sovereignty.