Name E. Jones Role Writer | Education Temple University | |
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Books Libido dominandi, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit, The slaughter of cities, Degenerate moderns, Dionysos rising | ||
Eugene Michael Jones (born May 4, 1948) is an American writer, former professor, media commentator and the current editor of Culture Wars magazine (formerly Fidelity Magazine). Jones is known for his writings from a perspective which defends the Catholic Church in American society and overviews the decline of the Catholic communities which were assimilated into the secular American mainstream after the 1950s.
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Early career
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, but he lost interest in it in early adulthood. He became involved in the counterculture of the 1960s. He found little satisfaction after leaving his faith and eventually returned to it after reading The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. Jones then obtained his Ph.D. from Temple University and began to teach at Saint Mary's College, of Notre Dame, Indiana. To his displeasure, he found this college to be what he considered to be (in the words of Michael W. Cuneo, who interviewed him) "the antithesis of what a Catholic college should be", as it was pro-choice, feminist and secular.
He made little effort to conceal his views, which led to conflicts with many faculty, his department chairwoman, and eventually the college's president. His department, which viewed him as a religious absolutist, decided against renewing his contract, a tenureable position, after his first year.
Writings
Jones's work has primarily been concerned with the relationship between the Catholic Church and secular culture as well as the sexual revolution and the wider cultural effects of the Second Vatican Council. Later work has focused on the historical friction between the Catholic Church and Jews and in 2004, the Catholic League "condemned Jones’s antisemitism and repudiated his efforts to justify it in the name of Catholic theology".
Jones has denied accusations of antisemitism and says that any form of racism is against his Catholic faith. He has stated publicly that he considers modern Judaism to be a wicked ideology, but he condemns criticism of Jews based upon race.. In an interview with The Washington Times, Jones said that he rejected racism in all of its forms, as is consistent with Catholic teaching, and responded to the cancellation of his conference at the Catholic University of America in an article in Culture Wars.
Current work
In recent years, Jones has focused on and has written numerous articles examining usury and wider economic issues. He wrote a book entitled Barren Metal: a History of Capitalism as the Conflict between Labor and Usury.