Goodall, Thiel, and The Oxford Martyrs

Week of 10/13-18/2025:
Goodall, Thiel, & the Oxford Martyrs By the Daily Meditations Team 10/19/2025

This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Some are penned by Matthew Fox (MF), and some by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). You can click on the title of a DM in order to view the original piece in its entirety. Also, please note, we will continue to offer a video teaching by Matthew each Monday.

October 13, 2025: Wisdom From Jane Goodall: Some Teachings, Actions & Stories (MF)
Planet Earth has lost a great luminary with the passing of Jane Goodall. We Jane who, in her work with chimpanzees, did something unheard of in the scientific community. She named each one. The authors of a book published on her 90th birthday say: “The most important thing that Jane did was to narrow the gulf between us and animals.”* Singer/songwriter Dave Matthews tells of how he and Jane were part of a Live Earth concert broadcast from Giant stadium, with about 100,000 people in attendance. Confessing that she wasn’t used to speaking to so large a crowd, she began her talk by making the sound a chimp makes to greet its fellow chimps across the jungle. The crowd hushed and then “some primal response rose to a deafening joyful roar.” Such is the power of Jane and the animals she loved.

Memorial tribute to Jane Goodall. Photo by @Vincent Calmel. Used with permission of the Jane Goodall Institute.

October 14, 2025: Peter Thiel, Billionaire & Silicon Valley Preacher of the Anti-Christ (MF)
Recently, Thiel has been giving talks where he ruminates on the Antichrist. Matthew read the transcript of those talks. Thiel’s message seems to be the polar opposite of the “amor mundi” (love of the world)that Jane Goodall stood for. Thiel was one of the first big shots in Silicon Valley to back Donald Trump beginning in 2015. His Palantir company specializes in gathering people’s private data and has been rewarded with billions of dollars in contracts from the defense department and from ICE. Thiel complains loudly about having to pay taxes, and also about rules regarding AI, proposing that such demands may be a mark of the antichrist. Perhaps he is projecting a bit?

October 15, 2025: Questions Posed to Peter Thiel on His Recent Talks on the Antichrist (MF)
Matthew poses some questions for Peter Thiel. Here is a sampling: 1) What does unchecked capitalism do to society? Do only the rich survive? 2) When you talk about the American and Roman Empires, I hear you imagining Silicon Valley’s aspirations to be a new empire in a post-democracy world run by and for billionaires. Is that your message? 3) You propose Bill Gates as another nominee for Antichrist. Is it because he has called for billionaires to give away their money for good causes? 4) What kind of religion are you and other Christian nationalists trying to give birth to? It seems to mirror almost exactly the opposite of what Jesus lived and taught and died for. It seems to be resonant of the Antichrist.

In his first major document, Pope Leo dove right into poverty, denouncing “an economy that kills” and “imbalances of wealth.” Chris Livesay reports for CBS Evening News. October 16, 2025: Teresa the Great (GG)
October 15 was the Feast Day of Teresa of Avila, a revered Spanish saint. At first, GG felt uninspired with her prose. But then a quotation by a Carmelite nun piqued his curiosity: Teresa of Avila had that mysterious quality the Spanish call “duende” which is characteristic of gypsies, flamenco guitarists, and dancers. “Duende” is raw, primitive, tempestuous energy, a vulnerability to inspiration boiling in the blood.** St. Teresa is known for her ecstatic mystical experiences. Teresa was not alone. Other women of her time also experienced the ecstasy of love without the intervention of any men. Teresa’s most famous work is titled The Interior Castle.*** In it, she treats the soul as a diamond palace with many hidden rooms to be discovered, and life as a journey of exploration and deeper intimacy with the divine. October 17, 2025: Matthew Fox Challenges Peter Thiel to Debate on the Antichrist (MF)
Today’s DM is a press release readers can choose to download (HERE) to send out to media contacts about Matthew being ready and willing to debate Peter Thiel on the subject of the Antichrist. It states, in part: Postmodern theologian, educator, and author Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox has issued a public invitation to Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel for a debate on the meaning of the Antichrist for this American moment.…When asked why he wants to take Thiel up on his offer to discuss the antichrist, Fox replied: “…I am certain an exchange between us would… offer an occasion to dive more deeply into this powerful archetype of the antichrist that has so caught his imagination and speaks to the apocalyptic spirit of our times.” ….While Thiel has described himself as “religious but not spiritual,” Fox argues that religion stripped of spirituality loses its essence of gratitude, compassion, and consciousness directed to the common good.

Matthew Fox reflects on “Unmasking the Limits of Capitalism.” October 18, 2025: The Oxford Martyrs
Yesterday was the feast day of the Oxford Martyrs. These are three men of ecclesiastical rank under King Edward VI, the boy king. They were burned at the stake during the reign of his sister and successor, Mary. Their sins? They believed that the people of England should be able to hear the Bible read to them in English, to participate in the Eucharist around a common table, and should be taught that the miraculous change happening at each celebration of the Lord’s Supper was not transubstantiation, but rather a change of the heart. They died because they wanted the religion of Christ to be more personal and less hierarchical. But they also contributed to the expulsion of about 12,000 people from monasteries and nunneries — around 1.5% of the population of England. Like all of us, the martyrs showed wisdom and error.

* Mark Bekoff, “The Indomitable Jane Goodall,”Newsbreak, October 2, 2025.

**Tessa Bielecki, Foreword to Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life, translated by Mirabai Starr (Shambala, 2007). ***St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, translated by Mirabai Starr (Riverhead Books, 2004)

Banner image: “Election 2024- Stop the Thiel! If a fading Donald Trump makes it to the White House, it’s only a matter of time until Peter Thiel’s Manchurian candidate, JD Vance, becomes president of the United States. The 2024 election is about avoiding an authoritarian future.” Cartoon by DonkeyHotey. Wikimedia Commons.

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