Major Theologian Matthew Fox - Term Paper Example

Major Theologian Matthew Fox 2006 Outline Introduction A. Biography B. Views of Matthew Fox Original Blessing 2. Theory of Mysticism 3. Theory of Universal Wisdom 4. Four Paths 5. Cosmic Christ C. Development of Fox’s Study in the 21st Century D. The 95 Theses Conclusions Description In this paper we will briefly overview biographic facts, main views. We will also see the differences between traditional church and ideas of Matthew Fox and the development of the Fox’s in the context of events of the 21st century. On the threshold of the third millennium the humanity start summing up all achievements, setting new objectives and reconsidering universal values. The changes also concern the religious aspect of life. According to needs of the modern individual religion should provide moral support and insure spiritual inspiration. In this respect, there emerge new trends in religious study, to which we can refer the ideas of the major theologian of our time Matthew Fox. Fox presents his study as a new theological trend within the field of the Christian tradition, identifying it as “creation-centered spirituality”. Some other connoisseurs of religious theories believe that Fox’s study is a somewhat modified system of views presented and supported earlier by St. Francis, St. Irenaeus, St. Phillip Neri, St. John of the Cross, as well as Hildegard of Bingen and Meister Eckhart / Nichols, 1988/. This postmodern theologian is the author of 28 popular theological and religious books including “Original Blessing”, “The Reinvention of Work”, “Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet”, “One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths”, “A Spirituality Named Compassion” and the recently published “A New Reformation!”. Matthew Fox was born in 1940 in Madison, Wisconsin. He has been a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years since 1967. He took Masters Degree in Philosophy and Theology from Aquinas Institute and a PhD in Spirituality from the Institute Catholique de Paris. Though, because of his work as progressive theologian he was silenced by the Vatican in 1988 and in 1993 dismissed from the Dominican order. In 1994 Fox was ordained as an Episcopalian Priest in San Francisco /Matthew Fox, 2005/. Matthew Fox was rewarded for his theological studies and spiritual work by New York Open Center Tenth Anniversary Award for Achievement in Creative Spirituality (1994). In 1995 he received the Courage of Conscience Award by the Peace Abbey of Sherborn. That meant that his work was highly prayed along with the work of Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Ernesto Cardinal and Rosa Parks, who also awardees in their times. In the following year he was presented with the Tikkun National Ethics Award. For two times he became the awardee of the Body Mind Spirit Award of Excellence for distinguished books in print: in 1996 he was presented for “The Reinvention of Work” and in 1997 for “Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest” / Matthew Fox, 2005/. Matthew Fox serves as the president of the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California. But he is in no way a person attached to one place. As a lecturer he travels throughout the USA, countries of the Central America, Europe and Australia. In fact, Fox is always warmly received as a lecturer in numerous countries all over the world and his books seem always be long-anticipated and attention-getting. Although he is regarded to be a brilliant scholar and persuasive public speaker, at the same time official Rome regards him as a renegade. Dr. Fox is condemned by the Congregation of the Faith for “feminist theological” works (he calls God both Father and Mother), for the tenet of “original blessing” instead of the fundamental doctrine of “original sin”, for his close work with people of wikka tradition and with Native Americans, for his justification and protection of homosexuals, and other theories that contradict the basic Babel principles as interpreted by the Catholic Church /Berry, 1996/. Let’s briefly discuss the main principles of Creation Spirituality, proposed by Matthew Fox. First of all, Fox considers that the universe is a blessing in its essence, that is, we experience it as good. Another principle, explained in “Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality”, is closely associated with this one and due to this principle in particular Orthodoxical Church considers Fox “dangerous and deviant” /Keen, 1989/. In the foregoing book Matthew Fox remonstrates against the original sin as a starting point of the Christian religion and proposes another theory of original blessing instead. He drives the attention of the people to the benefits of our planet, which made the life possible due to the right level of oxygen, water, suitable climate and healthy DNA in human bodies /Keen, 1989/. Besides, Fox considers that the idea of original sin and redemption is extremely harmful to human psyche. To his mind, by considering themselves originally defective and blotchy beings people become unable to direct their energies for one’s own benefit and to be proud of themselves. The next fundamental principle connects a human-being to this blessed universe. This is done through the relation proposed by Aquinas. The human is considered as a microcosm being a part of a huge universe, which is a macrocosm, and which “intoxicates” the former /Matthew Fox, 2002/. Thus, all the people are considered to be also blessed being a part of a blessed universe, which on its part fills a human with joy, love and virtue. Close to the idea of original blessing is the idea of salvation. If all is blessed that the main thing for human to do for the sake of salvation is to preserve all thing in their original good form. Matthew Fox supports the views of Thomas Aquinas that “salvation means first and foremost preserving things in the good” /Fox, 2004/. But Fox puts more sense in these words adding the ecological perspective. This statement touches upon the currant ecological problems by bearing the additional meaning of preserving such original blessings as clear water, healthy air and fertile soil. It may sound strange, but it is the ecological crises which became the driving motion for spiritual and religious renaissance on the beginning of the 21st century / Fox, 2004/. Fox advances the theory of mysticism, which he considers to be the form of religious practice with the primary interest on the personal original experience of the divine /Boulton, 1991/. Though this is not recognized officially by the churches, mystic practices take place in all religions. The reason of this lies in the fact that people do really retain believe in some transcendent reality if they can communicate with this reality though experiencing it immediately in person. As Fox considers all people potentially faithful, he also claims that mystic exists in all of us /Boulton, 1991/. According to Fox mysticism comprises two essential elements, originating from two meanings of the Greek word “mystikos”. They are 1) “to shut ones senses” and 2) “to enter the mysteries” /Matthew Fox, 2002/. It means that on the one hand all people are born full of wonder and are able to receive it at any age and at any stage of development. And on the other hand people don’t take the wonder of existence for granted / Matthew Fox, 2002/. Though all people are originally blessed they have to work hard on themselves to be able to find their deep self, which constructs the basis of their spirit. By saying this Fox emphasizes on the importance of spiritual praxis and meditation and stresses that if we neglect this praxis we’ll waste our life seeing the sense of it only in fear addiction or expectations of other people laid on us. The salvation is represented as “preserving the good” according to Aquinas / Matthew Fox, 2002/. Matthew Fox supports the idea presented by great German scholar of the past Meister Eckhart, who considered that “Divinity is an underground river that no one can stop and no one can damp up”/Blakney, 1986/. It means that deity is a universal entity that exists on the subconscious level in every person and is impossible to extirpate. The idea of divinity as an underground river gave birth to another one – the idea of deep ecumenism, explained by Fox in his book “One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from World Faiths”. He stresses on the point that to reach the universal wisdom a person do has to “go down the well”, i.e. to go through a number of practices, typical of particular religion in order to find the universal truth. But, on the other hand, it will be falsely to take the well itself for the waters of the underground river /Boulton, 1991/. So, any religion is only a means to achieve the universal wisdom and no religious study may lay claim to be more righteous or just than the others. In this way Fox unites all religions presenting them as different wells on the single underground river. “There is one underground river—but there are many wells into that river: an African well, a Taoist well, a Buddhist well, a Jewish well, a Muslim well, a goddess well, a Christian well, and aboriginal wells. Many wells but one river”/Boulton, 1991/. Fox does not suggest that any of the churches more right than the other. In fact, he explains four possible ways in which people relate themselves to divinity. The first one is theism, when people believe in the Universal God, who’s up in the sky /6keen, 1989. The second way is atheism, which is opposite the theism and results in the rejection of any God(s) /Keen, 1989/. The third way is pantheism, when people believe that everything in the outer world is God and God is everything, too /Keen, 1989/. And, finally, the last objective is supported by Fox. This is the modified version of the pantheism, representing God or divinity as the inherent part of all the things in the world, but maintaining that God exceeds the created order /Keen, 1989/. This is only one of a number of discrepancies between the Fox’s theory and the position of the traditional Catholic Church. Foxs new book “A New Reformation!” states the fact of confrontation of two main Christian churches in the contemporary world. The first one is fundamentalist and characterized by a rigidly hierarchical structure. It is represented by the image of the Punitive Father God with the initial assumption that all people are born in sin. This church suppresses the feminine, spreads the ideas of homophobia . Another Church is represented by the by the Mother/Father God who is just, compassionate and merciful. Fox believes that God is “dynamic feminine as well as masculine.” This Church also introduces a feminine figure of Wisdom. Fox states that the time has come for Christians to decide which church they will support /Matthew Fox, 2002/. We can see a great difference between Fox’s “creation-centered spirituality” and official “fall-redemption spirituality”. The first one is dialectical, aesthetic, feminist, formed on the cyclical concept of time and honoring the earth, concerned with ecological problems, aiming to cultivate social, religious tolerance and taking sexuality as a gift rather than a blemish /Nichols, 1988/. The latter forms the complete opposition to the first one being patriarchal, ascetic, based on a lineal concept of time and dualistic, taking for granted the idea of original sin, atonement and guilt and despising sexuality and taking earth as unimportant /Nichols, 1988/. The journey to the wisdom can also be named as a four-fold journey dividing into several “Paths”. Matthew Fox says that “to connect with the great river we all need a path, but when you get down there’s only one river…” /Fox, 2002/. The first of these paths is Via Positiva – a path of delight, pleasure and wonder /3/. This path supposes that we should love Life, given to as by the God. Fox rejects the love and anticipation of the Death supported by traditional Christian Church. Fox refers to those saints and great thinkers, who maintained the idea of a loving creator who does not regard his creations as sinful and disgraceful. The author explains that to love Life means to be grateful for merits and pleasures given to us by a caring creator. Fox calls people co-creators and maintains the dignity in our being such. The Second Path is opposite to the first one and is called Via Negativa: through darkness, ordeals and suffering /Matthew Fox, 2002/. Fox doesn’t reject the existence of the feelings of human insignificance, inner emptiness and inevitable death. He accepts the presence of pain and limitations in the human life but imposes that we should take them as a part of our loving life. Fox is consistent with the idea that pain and emptiness are important for our living. The Third Path is called and includes birthing and creativity which is the unity of Positive and Negative path aspects. Fox affirms that: “Creation is birthing something where previously there was nothing” and gives the examples of the appearance of new stars, birth of children, as well as ideas and new friendships. Once again Fox calls a human an active co-creator /Matthew Fox, 2002/. And, finally, the author presents the Forth Path Via Transformativa (through compassion, sympathy, justice healing, appreciation). This Path presents a qualitative characteristic for the Path Via Creativa; and maintains that human creativity is for the most part directed toward useful and valuable contributions. Transformation Path focuses on creativity that is well-intended. This option represents a path that presupposes not just casual actions on the part of a human but actions specially directed on the maintenance of the compassion, sympathy and justice /Matthew Fox, 2002/. Fox regards every person as an artist that performs the art of meditation which is the initial form of prayer and is intended to release our images. Art is interpreted in ritual, in the community’s art /Matthew Fox, 2002/. At the same time Matthew Fox doesn’t overestimate the role of rituals for the communication with God. He accepts the point of view proposed by Meister Eckhart: “To seek God by rituals is to get the ritual and to lose God in the process…” /Blankey, 1986/. This statement disagrees with the traditional point of view because, on the one hand, states the insignificance of clergy and denies their necessity for the establishing of the contact between people and God. And on the other hand, this idea supposes that any person the in-born ability to communicate with God. Matthew Fox supports Eckhart’s words that “praying, reading, singing, watching, fasting, and doing penance-all these virtuous practices were contrived to catch us and keep us away from strange, ungodly things...But when a person has a true spiritual experience, he may boldly drop external disciplines...” / Blankey, 1986 /. If to take a closer look, we will see that there exists one considerable difference. Fox does not only believe that a person can omit prayers and not keep to fasts in order to “prove” his/her faith and love for God. Dr. Fox leaves out the Church as an intermediate link between a human and God completely, relying mainly on human spirituality and self-reflection in the process of salvation. The ability of every person to reach God by him/herself can be explained partially by the divine origin of all people. Fox says that all humans are sons and daughters of God and so all of us have divine blood our veins and a divine breath in our lungs /Matthew Fox, 2002/. The approach to the human as a divine creation can neutralize the sex-negative tendencies and draw attention of people to the public life, which wasn’t observed for centuries. Fox relies on the words of Aquinas that “A mistake about Creation results in a mistake about God” /Fox, 2004/. The position of a mysticism resulted in the generation of a new idea – idea of a Cosmic Christ /Fox, 1988/. The search of this Cosmic Christ will modify that perverted anthropocentric image of the “personal savior Christianity”, proposed by the official church. The aim of this search is to reshape and comprehend the idea of living cosmology in the conscience of modern Christians /Boulton, 1991/. The importance of the new interpretation of the Christ is very important nowadays. If earlier the moments of separation and solitude provided the best way for the communication with God. But now the presence of God is required everywhere in all-day life even in social life. The image of God should also change. God that controls everything and has an unlimited power, which existed previously, should change into compassionate and sympathetic God / Boulton, 1991/. The answer to the problem of a new interpretation of the essence of faith is in Fox’s words: “The holy trinity of science (knowledge of creation), mysticism (experiential union with creation and its unnamable mysteries) and art (expression of our awe at creation) is what constitutes a living cosmology” / Fox, 1988/. By proposing the idea of living cosmology, Matthew Fox proposes also a new approach to the training of new Christian priests. He stresses the importance of scientific subjects in training, because “the understanding of creative and vibrant nature of the universe” is crucial for understanding the essence of the Cosmic Christ / Fox, 1988/. Mysticism and spiritual studies are also important integral parts in the curriculum of any theological seminary. Considerable attention is also paid to art. Art, as important to the theological study, is regarded in its two forms: meditation and secular art (music, dances, literature, painting, etc.). With the help of art, according to Fox, a would-be pastors will learn to feel and heal the cosmos, surrounding them and make the beginning of new creative theology / Fox, 1988/. We can’t say for sure if the traditional Orthodox Church will accept the ideas of Matthew Fox, at least some of them. Fox himself, however, has no doubt about this. He made a list of proposals to the church aimed to improve it and up-date it to the modern life and contemporary needs of believers. The first thing the church must do is, according to Fox, to renew the western worship. The task of the church is to change “the anthropocentric deterioration of worship in the West” / Fox, 1988/ for the Cosmic Christ. In doing this, the church should follow the traditions of cosmological worship found in the praxis of peoples belonging to non-Christian world. While performing ritual ceremonies and dances these people present themselves not anthropocentrically but as a part of a sacred universe / Boulton, 1991/. One more problem of the church as viewed by Matthew Fox is passivity of our “first environment”. When our minds are in the active work, the bodies remain immovable during the prayer. Fox proposes to come back to the times when our ancestors moved in their procession during prayers round the church, through the whole village, visited graveyard and returned back again. Fox believes that such processions help to unite people in the common feeling of happiness and awe /Matthew Fox, 2002/. Fox also believes that pain has a great religious significance. Fox condemns modern church for its disavowal of deep suffering and grief. He claims that people do not have possibilities for wailing and lamentation and because of this have to conceal their emotions and their pain. And this contradicts the whole essence of faith. People who conceal their pain and don’t share their emotions cannot worship together. In the process of worshiping a person gives vent to all his/her feelings. We can notice that non-Christian people don’t conceal their pain but sing it out or dance it out. Expression of one’s feelings provides the outlet for negative emotions and leave place and energies for worship/ Fox, 1988/. According to the point of view of Matthew Fox the church should accept the idea of deep ecumenism. This idea provides the spiritual connection for all Christians as Cosmic Christ is present in all churches that refer themselves to the Christian religion. But, Fox insists on the original unity of all peoples and all religions that are connected within the common Cosmic Christ. This Cosmic Christ unites the people through “deep ecumenism” with the help of the universal as Sophia or Wisdom, represented by the figure of Jesus / Boulton, 1991 /. This idea of the universal unity is extremely important nowadays. We live in the world distorted by social, national and religious intolerance. The idea of “deep ecumenism” can teach people to treat the representatives of other cultures and other religions with tolerance, understanding and sympathy. The other position which Fox proposes to accept is “giving birth to God”. Although Mary is the only literal mother of God, she is, at the same time, is the metaphoric representation of the whole motherhood. “By her example the good news comes upon us that we, too, are mothers of God whenever our birthings bear the fruit of wisdom or compassion, as hers did in the person of Jesus Christ” /Fox, 1983/. For Fox it is much in common between Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, and any woman, whose real vocation is to give birth to a new life and to bring new joy and new beauty in the world. And the last proposal aims to rise into question and stress the importance of the ecological issues. He supposes that in the new millennium the color of the religious life should be green. The problem is very urgent and demands immediate consideration as the best creation of the Christ – the Earth – is in danger of extinction / Boulton, 1991 /. This global ecological disaster requires the attention of not only politicians and Green Peace but also sympathy and cooperation of all people of the world. The role of the religion as one of the most persuasive means of information is important and vital. The role of Matthew Fox in the contemporary world is significant. He attracts attention of the Christian World to the need of reformation and stresses the importance to reawaken the West to its own mystical tradition. He is troubled with restoration of ecological, gender and social justice. One of the most provocative actions of Matthew Fox was the nailing of the 95 Theses for a New Reformation on June, 8, 2005 near the famous Wittenberg Cathedral, Germany. This was a metaphorical step repeating his famous predecessor Martin Luther in 1517. By writing an “updated version” of the 95 Theses Fox aimed to safe the church form the disaster. Then, 500 years ago Luther was protesting against corruption in the church and against indulgences. Nowadays, there arose a new need for deep reconsideration of the main principles of the church. This is explained mainly by the Fox’s words: “At this critical time in human and planetary history, when the earth is being ravaged by the violence of the war, poverty, sexism, homophobia and eco-destruction, we need to gather those who offer a future that is one of compassion, creativity and justice to stand up and speak their conscience together as never before. Religion ought to be a part of the solution, not the problem” /9/. Fox himself considers the Theses to be vitally important and sees is role in the beginning of the debate with the official Catholic Church. He proposes to change the whole system of views, the way we look at the world and to preach religion, based on sympathy and compassion. Some of new ideas, added by Fox to the 95 Theses are the following: “God is both Father and Mother”; “Religion is not necessary, but spirituality is” and “Jesus said hothing about condoms, birth control or homosexuality” /Matthew Fox, 2004/. We can’t say for sure if this system of views will be accepted. But we can draw a parallel between Matthew Fox in the context of the modern world and Martin Luther in the context of events of the 16th century. Then the ideas of nationalism and individualism created the environment favorable for the development of Luther’s ideas and, in fact, made Martin Luther and Protestant reformation inevitable. Maybe, now, in the perspective of the contemporary social and religious injustice as well as threat of ecocatastrophe will also create necessary prerequisites for the development and further admission of the theology of Matthew Fox /Matthew Fox, 2004/. So, as we can see the system of ideas, proposed by Matthew Fox differs considerably from the traditional Catholic Church and proposes new perspectives for Christians and preaching ideas of tolerance, justice and ecological awareness. It presents real strong alternative to the orthodox Church and now it is on the part of Christians to decide which one to chose. References Nichols, Mike. 1988. A Pagan Perspective on Matthew Fox, [Online]. Available from: [10 March 2006]. Matthew Fox, a spiritual theologian. 2005. [Online]. Available from: [10 March 2006]. Berry, Thomas. 1996. Matthew Fox. Keen, Sam. 1989. Original Blessing, not Original Sin – Matthew Fox and Creation Spirituality. [Online]. Available from: [10 March 2006]. Matthew Fox. 2002. [Online]. Available from: [10 March 2006]. Fox, Mathew. 2002. The Environment’s Role in Deconstructing and Reconstructing Theology and Religion. [Online]. Available from: [10 March 2006]. Boulton, Wayne G. 1991. Bringing Matthew Fox in from the God. [Online]. Available from: [10 March 2006]. Blankey, Raymond. 1986. Meister Eckhart, A Modern Translation. NY: Harper Collins. Fox, Matthew. 1999. Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet. Oakland: University of Creation Spirituality. Fox, Matthew. 1988. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. San Francisco: Harper and Row. Fox, Matthew. 1983. Original Blessing. Sante Fe: Bear and Co.. Matthew Fox. 2004. [Online]. Available from: [10 March 2006]. Read More