I had a vague notion about who Thiel was, a tech billionaire who has supported Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. What I didn't know, until reading the Wired essay, was that Thiel describes himself as a committed Girardian, and uses Girard to defend his beliefs about the rise of the Antichrist. Of particular interest to me was the role of the katechon in Thiel's political theology. All this sent me down a rabbit hole exploring how the katechon plays out in Girardian thought, and how these ideas are entering the political mainstream through people like Peter Thiel.
Also, since I just finished a series on René Girard where I discussed his vision of the Apocalypse I felt this would be a good follow-up series.
So, to start, what is the katechon? And what is the relation of the katechon to the Antichrist?
In 2 Thessalonians 2 there is an enigmatic discussion about the coming of the "the man of lawlessness":
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
A few verses later, Paul describe how the man of lawlessness will rise to power:
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.The man of lawlessness is not explicitly called the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians, but throughout church history the two figures have been closely associated. The man of lawlessness appears before the return of the Lord, leading a great rebellion against God. He deceives the world. He exalts himself in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be divine. These descriptions echo the Beast in Revelation, a figure marked by mass deception, global dominion, and open war against God.
In describing the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul turns to mention a second mysterious figure:
Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back (τὸ κατέχον), so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back (ὁ κατέχων) will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
At present, Paul says, something or someone is "holding back" the man of lawlessness. Something is "restraining" the Antichrist. This enigmatic "restrainer" Paul calls τὸ κατέχον (katechon), the "restraining thing" or "the one who restrains."
Okay, who is this Restrainer? Who is holding back the Antichrist?
This is where we take a turn toward political theology. For most of church history, the katechon was believed to be the power of the empire to prevent social chaos and dissolution. For example, some of the early church fathers felt that the Roman Empire was the katechon. Rome certainly wasn't good, but the civil order Rome provided did prevent the global rise of the Antichrist. Later, during the Medieval period, the Holy Roman Empire was believed to be the restraining power that prevented social unrest and upheaval. In short, up until the Protestant Reformation the katechon was believed to be legitimate political power to preserve the social order.
With the Reformation, however, the meaning of the katechon became deeply contested, a development that, as we’ll see, has relevance to contemporary debates surrounding Peter Thiel. Specifically, rather than viewing the political power of the Catholic Church, embodied in the Holy Roman Empire, as the katechon, the Reformers began to argue that the Church itself was the Antichrist.
The upshot of this development is simply put: Your katechon might be my Antichrist. One person views a political power as holding back the chaos, while another sees that power as the Antichrist itself. Take Donald Trump as an example: Katechon or Antichrist?
The katechon explains much of the attraction evangelicals have for Trump, an attraction that has puzzled progressive Christians. Morally speaking, Trump is not a Christian exemplar. Similar to Caesar, Trump isn't "a good person." But like the Roman empire, Trump is a katechon. Trump uses political power to "restrain" the darkness, as evangelicals understand that darkness.
And yet, it's precisely here, with evangelical capitulation to strong-man authoritarianism, where progressive Christians see evangelicals falling prey to the powerful delusions and lies of the Antichrist. Trump is the man of lawlessness who is setting himself up as a divine authority and evangelicals are "believing the lie."
Again, one person's katechon is another person's Antichrist. And the slipperiness here is the theme of this series.
