A California nonprofit is set to host an off-the-record lecture series featuring billionaire investor Peter Thiel on the biblical figure of the Antichrist.
Thiel, 57, will offer his thoughts on “how his Christian faith informs his understanding of the world,” including the areas of theology, history, literature and “politics of the Antichrist” as part of a four-part lecture series at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, according to a flyer for the event.
Scheduled for Sept. 15, Sept. 22, Sept. 29 and Oct. 6, Thiel’s lecture will explore the theological and technological dimensions of the Antichrist, drawing upon religious thinkers such as French philosopher René Girard, who Thiel studied under at Stanford University, Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift, Carl Schmitt and John Henry Newman.
Each lecture — which will not be transcribed or shared with the public — is designed to form a “cohesive series,” and admission is only offered to the entire lecture series, rather than individual dates.
The event will also feature a moderated Q&A with Peter Robinson, host of Stanford’s Hoover Institution podcast “Uncommon Knowledge,” and an audience Q&A for attendees to have “a chance to engage directly with Thiel.”
The Acts 17 Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to “Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society,” is the organizer behind the event.
CP reached out to Acts 17 Collective for comment on Monday. This story will be updated if a response is received.
The event marks the latest foray into Christian thought for the Palantir CEO and PayPal co-founder. In May, Thiel attended the DJ iHearCanvas event in San Francisco, where he was interviewed by Pastor Toby Kurth of Christ Church in the Bay Area.
During his chat with Kurth, Thiel shared his views on the Ten Commandments and identified which ones he believes are the most significant.
“The Ten Commandments, the two most important are the first and last on the list. The first commandment is, you should worship God,” Thiel reportedly told attendees. “The tenth commandment is, you should not covet the things that belong to your neighbor. In some ways, the first commandment is to look up, and the 10th commandment is you do not look around. And if you’re too much focused horizontally on all the people around you, that’s sort of the bad version you get caught up in.”
In an October 2024 interview, Thiel offered a glimpse into his perspective on the Antichrist.
“My speculative thesis is that if the Antichrist were to come to power, it would be by talking about Armageddon all the time. The slogan of the Antichrist is peace and safety, which is nothing wrong with peace and safety,” he said. “But you have to sort of imagine that it resonates very differently in a world where the stakes are so absolute, where the stakes are so extreme, where the alternative to peace and safety is Armageddon and the destruction of all things.”
President Donald Trump tapped Thiel to implement a March executive order calling on the federal agencies to integrate data-sharing practices — an order that raised fears among civil libertarians as potentially laying the groundwork for a vast federal surveillance database.
In addition to his support of Trump, Thiel made history at the 2016 Republican National Convention by being the first openly gay speaker to declare “I am proud to be gay” on the convention stage.
