Ep. 11 Spiritual Resistance in an Age of Collapse

In this episode of The Spirit of Revolution, I move from abstract questions of transcendence to how they played out historically — and politically — in the first half of the twentieth century. Following the catastrophe of the First World War, the belief that human reason alone could organise a moral world collapsed. The resulting vacuum produced both nihilism and totalitarianism. In this context, Catholic thinkers were forced to confront a fundamental question: what does it mean to live a transcendent vision of the human when power, violence, and mass death dominate public life? I look at how the Catholic Church responded to the loss of state power, the rejection of Thomist compromises with secular authority, and the emergence of new theological currents centred on the dignity of the person. This led to concrete social practices — Catholic Action, community organising, trade unions — and later to hard moral decisions under fascism and Nazi occupation. The episode examines: - The rise of secular materialism and its psychological consequences - The idea of the person versus the individual or the mass - Catholic engagement with community, labour, and politics - The failure of compromise with authoritarian power - Why “spiritual resistance” became non-negotiable under fascism I also compare Catholic resistance in France with Protestant resistance in Germany, including the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and contrast these with the failures of institutional churches that retreated into a false separation between the spiritual and the political. The argument is simple but demanding: if transcendence is real, it cannot be confined to private belief. It redraws the whole world. And once that is seen clearly, resistance is no longer a political choice — it becomes a matter of being. The parallels with our current moment are uncomfortable and obvious. For my latest updates and to support my work, sign up to my email list at https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of my books, like Common Sense for the 21st Century, and my film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email me at roger@rev21.earth Follow My Work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #revolution