Reclaiming Eschatology & Atonement During A Convergence of
Globalization, Nihilism, Science, and Spirituality
An Inadvertent Book: Paperback and eBook available now
240,000 words. 553 pages. And (some) pictures!
“Paule has captured something that is ultimately of significant and vital prophetic importance to the church… In this troubling time of worldwide unrest, we can lift up our eyes and see something coming that brings hope and rejoicing.”
— Brandon Munday, Crucible of Thought (Foreword)
“The coming of the Son of Man” isn’t a single future apocalypse to passively await, but an ongoing collective awakening – a transformation happening within us through ego-death, communal healing, and spiritual integration. In contrast to escapist or doom-and-gloom interpretations, this book reframes Christian eschatology as an inner unveiling rather than a single external catastrophe.
The “apocalypse” is disclosure, not destruction; the end is not out there but in here. “The Second Coming is not a rescue plan. It is a recurring invitation… a mirror, not a map. And the one looking back is you.”. Grounded in biblical exegesis, depth psychology, neuroscience, and mystical theology, the book develops a comprehensive vision of spiritual awakening that bridges ancient scripture with urgent contemporary crises. It is not another collection of theological clichés or self-help platitudes – it’s an interdisciplinary exploration intended to “push the theological rubble to the side” and invite a profound change of perspective.
“We forgot that Jesus didn’t tell his followers to speculate about the end. He told them to watch for it happening within.”
The Son of Man & Its Mystical Awakening, Patterson
The book maintains that Christ’s prophetic language describes a pattern of ego-death and rebirth that each person (and society collectively) must undergo – “not a prophecy of future spectacle or predetermined judgment, but a call to conscious participation in divine reality—through ego death, inner transformation, and the reconciliation of all things”. In this view, the “Son of Man” is less a single figure on a throne and more an archetype of awakened humanity, a repeating pattern of transcendence that is emerging “under our skin and in our systems, because our egos are breaking”.
“The funhouse of ego inevitably collapses, leaving us naked to our longings.”
Book Preview
Around 240K words, this is not meant to be a simple read, or for everyone.
Below is a PDF preview of the book that gives you the gist of what you’d be getting into, as well as material below that gives a quicker and more systematic breakdown of the book.
7 Sections of The Son of Man
“The Coming of the Son of Man is not a single future event. It is the ongoing awakening of humanity through ego-death, communal healing, and spiritual integration.“
Section I: Five Worlds & The Crises of One
We open with the disorientation of modern life—a fragmented existence shaped by ego, algorithm, addiction, and ache. This section introduces five overlapping “worlds” that define contemporary experience: the inner world, the lived world, the noosphere, the infosphere, and the empirical world. It reframes spiritual crisis not as personal failure but as a structural inevitability—and locates awakening in the moment we see through the illusions.
Section II: Reorienting Our Narrative—Toward & Through Scripture (Bible pt. 1)
From Genesis to Ezekiel to Luke’s Gospel, this section rereads Scripture as a mystic and psychological unfolding—not a literal roadmap. The “Son of Man” emerges not as a future tyrant or distant savior, but as a symbolic pattern of ego death, justice, and surrender. Scripture becomes less about prediction and more about participation.
Section III: Corinthians – Unlikely Christian Revolutionaries (Bible pt. 2)
1 Corinthians becomes the unexpected heart of the mystic revolution. Through Greco-Roman ritual theory, neuropsychology, and trauma-informed exegesis, this section unpacks Paul’s vision of a radically inclusive, ego-crucifying community. Corinth wasn’t orderly—it was ecstatic, embodied, Eucharistic, and subversive.
Section IV: The Resurrection of Mysticism
Mysticism isn’t a footnote—it’s the root system. This section traces the historical marginalization and survival of mystical consciousness in the face of empire, dogma, and modernity. From desert mothers to Meister Eckhart to Romantic philosophers, we recover the mystic lineage as Christianity’s hidden heart. Discipleship becomes a path of ego-transcendence, not moral conformity.
Section V: The Neuroscience of Spiritual Transformation
Spirituality isn’t anti-science—it’s verified by it. Here, brain science meets contemplative practice. We explore the right hemisphere’s role in mystery, awe, and surrender, the physiology of deconstruction, and how trauma, ritual, and psychedelics alter consciousness. Awakening isn’t an idea—it’s a rewiring of the self.
Section VI: Modern Deconstruction, Nihilism, and the Subjective
We enter the philosophical abyss: Nietzsche’s hammer, postmodern fragmentation, and the death of objective meaning. But where many stop at despair, this section searches for integration. Girard’s scapegoat theory, Jungian individuation, and psychospiritual models of rebirth reveal a strange hope—one that walks through the void and emerges with a new vision.
Section VII: Paraclete, Unified Atonement, and Sparking Movements
The final section weaves theology, psychology, and lived community into a mystic eschatology. The Paraclete is reframed as the Spirit of mutual transformation—not the internalized cop, but the fire of love burning between people. Atonement is no longer substitution—it’s participation. And the eschaton? It’s not postponed. It’s now.
- Epilogue: Armchair Futurism
The book ends by looking forward—not with certainty, but with curiosity. This epilogue explores spiritual futurism from the edge of ecology, technology, collective psychology, and the eschatological imagination. What might awakening look like in a world of AI, climate trauma, psychedelics, and mass disconnection? What new spiritual movements might emerge? It doesn’t prophesy. But it sketches what might be possible if the inner transformation described here ever scaled outward. - Glossary
To keep the language open and accessible, a robust glossary is included at the end. It defines theological, psychological, philosophical, and mystical terms—from sin to noosphere, mimesis to Paraclete, ego death to Trinitarian metaphysics. Whether you’re steeped in Christian mysticism or new to the whole conversation, it helps readers track with the book.
Appendix Summaries
- Appendix I — A Comparison with Historic & Contemporary Eschatological Thought
A clear-eyed map of the major frameworks—Premillennial, Postmillennial, Amillennial, Preterist, Idealist—and why they form people as much as they inform them. You lay out what each vision expects of history, the Church, and the “end,” then contrast that with your claim: apocalypse as unveiling and participation. The takeaway isn’t score-keeping; it’s consequences—how a system shapes hope, ethics, and attention. - Appendix II — On the Nature of God
A theological reset: away from the sky-tyrant caricature and toward God as the living ground of being—relational, intimate, and present. It traces how classical attributes meet relational metaphysics, and why a God who participates (rather than merely presides) fits the scriptural arc and the book’s participatory eschatology. This sets the stage for seeing salvation as union rather than transaction. - Appendix III — On an Afterlife
Resists the cartoon binaries (literalist heaven/hell vs. flat materialism) and asks what continuity looks like if “resurrection” names transformation now and beyond. It traces biblical threads, early Christian imagination, and psychological insights (ego, love, judgment as unveiling) to suggest an afterlife coherent with the book’s thesis: love reveals, ego dissolves, union deepens. The point isn’t certainty; it’s integrity with the gospel’s own grammar of death-to-life. - Appendix IV — The Divinity of Jesus & the Trinitarian Mystery
This appendix affirms the full divinity and real humanity of Christ (the hypostatic union) while exploring the Trinitarian shape of divine life. You trace how the embodied Logos isn’t just theology—it’s anthropology: the divine-human union as the telos of humanity itself. The Trinity is reframed not as doctrinal math but as relational reality—Lover, Beloved, and Love—the original communion that grounds all being. The section builds toward a lived mysticism: participation in divine life, not just belief about it. - Appendix V — Calvinism, Control, & the Neurological Dysfunction of American Christianity
A psycho-theological read of why certain control-centric systems “work” (and harm). It tracks how fear, certainty, and scarcity wire congregations and individuals, then shows how that neurology props up trauma-coded theologies. This isn’t a dunk (maybe a little); it’s a diagnostic, arguing for a God whose love heals without coercion—and for practices that rewire people toward freedom. - Appendix VI — Entheogens in Ancient Israelite Ritual
Surveys the textual, linguistic, and historical breadcrumbs around psychoactive use in ancient worship, not to romanticize escape but to ask how embodied practices opened people to God. You hold it with nuance: reverence, caution, and the claim that altered consciousness—via rite, awe, or substance—has always been a human doorway to encounter. It serves the larger thesis: awakening is not abstraction; it’s embodied perception. - Appendix VII — A Revolutionary Old Idea
“What if church was built for ego-transformation, not conformity?” It sketches a practice-centered, low-hierarchy community: confession, forgiveness, shared meals, 1-to-1 honesty, service—rhythms that burn off pretense and grow people up. It’s intentionally small-scale and reproducible: a blueprint for post-ecclesial movements that privilege encounter over performance. - Appendix VIII — Deconstructing Penal Substitution—A Biblical & Historical Critique
This appendix unpacks the rise of Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) and traces its roots through church history, theology, and scripture. It critiques PSA’s psychological and spiritual impact—how it frames God as wrathful, love as violence, and salvation as transaction. In its place, it re-centers older, more transformative models: Christus Victor, healing, participation. The goal isn’t iconoclasm—it’s repair. Atonement, reimagined as reunion, becomes good news again. - Appendix IX — On the Devil
Reframes “the Satan” as both real and nearer than we prefer: the Accuser as archetype and system, the adversarial posture within and between us. We track how projection, shame, and scapegoating animate this figure—and how the Gospel unmasks it. Deliverance here looks like truth-telling, forgiveness, and refusing the cycle of blame. - Appendix X — The Emmaus Road & Finding Christ in Every Scripture
Emmaus becomes your hermeneutic: Christ opens the text, breaks the bread, and people see. We model how the OT already hums with this—prophet, wisdom, and apocalyptic lines converging (e.g., Daniel 7’s Son of Man; Isaiah’s anointed; Ezekiel’s shepherd; the new covenant on hearts). The method is participatory, not proof-texty: read until the risen One burns in the chest. - Appendix XI — Narrative Theology—Context, Setting, & Intent
Doctrine without story calcifies. You argue theology is best held as narrative—with stakes, characters, and a through-line—so Scripture forms people rather than arming them. Practically: attend to who’s speaking, to whom, and why; then let the story read you. It’s a method that matches the book’s tone: less control, more communion. - Appendix XII — The Conversion of Lilith
A prophetic re-imagining: if Christ reconciles all things, what happens to humanity’s scapegoated feminine? It retells the Lilith myth as a test case in radical atonement: shadow named, wounds witnessed, banishment undone. The goal isn’t myth-management; it’s a healed anthropology—nothing outside the garden reborn.
Some Quotes from the Book
- “This is theology after the collapse. The Christianity that lives after the institution. The spirituality that isn’t afraid of science. And the psychology that knows salvation isn’t about being right—it’s about being real.”
- “Love is not sentimental. It is the eschatological fire that reveals what is and burns what isn’t.”
- “We are not waiting for a future moment; we are living inside the collapse of the false world already.”
- “The Son of Man language in the gospels is not simply a messianic title—it is a window into the type of humanity that awakens.”
- “Mysticism is not fringe. It is the original Christian consciousness, buried beneath centuries of doctrine and moral performance.”
- “The true apocalypse is not destruction, but unveiling. And the true coming is not external conquest, but inner transfiguration.”
- “Our era’s crises are also invitations—a perfect starting point for exploring how globalization and spirituality now converge.”
- “Atonement is not a divine bookkeeping trick—it is the undoing of the scapegoat mechanism that has driven history.”
- “Jesus’ death unmasks the scapegoat mechanism at the heart of civilization, not to appease God, but to expose us.”
- “What we call ‘salvation’ is often the ego being preserved. What the Gospel calls for is the ego undone.”
- “AA, at its best, is not just a support group—it is a system for communal ego transcendence.”
- “Pentecost is Babel in reverse—not language divided, but meaning reunited.”
What It Asks of the Reader
This book doesn’t try to convince or convert. It invites. It attempts to trace how the ego—personal, institutional, and cultural—has shaped the human story, and how its unraveling may be the beginning of something better.
That’s not just theological. It’s neurological, mythic, historical, and social.
If you’ve sensed something shifting in the world, in faith, or in yourself, and you’ve run out of room in inherited categories, this might be for you. If not now, maybe later.
