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Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Our Age of Reckoning, continued |
We are meditating on empires and colonialism and religions’ complicity in both. |
Englanders sometimes raise the story that some Africans themselves were in league with the slave trade as they captured their own peoples, locked them in cages, and took much booty from the Westerners coming to steal Africans to bolster their imperial ambitions. | Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the Senegalese island of Goree was a holding center for millions of enslaved people and a departure point for slave ships to the New
World. UNESCO |
Of course there is the tragic
story of American slavery that is still with us in so many ways, and the trauma inherited by the descendants of slaves. And the conquering of the Indigenous peoples, often in the name of religion, which has fed its own series of traumas to this day. Plenty of sins to go around. Plenty of wounds and trauma and evil unleashed. No one tribe is without sin. Humanity is capable of plenty of evil wherever one lives. Humans cannot live
without myths. Psychologist Rollo May points out that myths are basic to societal ethics and morality. That is part of the story of the “tamed” monarchy of England that I touched on recently. |
“What Is The Great Reset?” – the World Economic Forum works to reshape the global economic mythos after the COVID pandemic. | We are living between times, myths are in flux, the marriage of religion and empires is dying and deconstructing. And religions themselves are on the decline in Western culture. |
And that explains, I think, some of the confusion and chaos, bitterness, grief and anger of our times. There are no easy answers, but one recognition that may help to contextualize issues today is this: An Age of Reckoning does not have to be an Age of Anger. It can also be an age of recognition, of understanding both the sins of our fathers and the possibilities of a species struggling for its survival as these sins come home to roost. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year is a stark reminder of the kind of power and havoc that empires and wannabe empires (including the dreams of the 3rd Reich to rule for “1000 years”) wreak on humanity. Our “Age of Reckoning” extends beyond the era of empire-making to that of Ecocide and the afflictions humans commit against Mother Earth. |
That Reckoning is occurring as we witness the droughts and heat, floods and hurricanes, seas rising and creatures going extinct that have resulted from human imperial attitudes toward Mother Earth. | Environmental professor Dr. Annapurna Singh lists the ecological impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war. |
One yearns to see the “kingdoms” of this
world yield to that promised kingdom where justice and compassion and community would be the norm. That “shared meaning,” might provide the “right glue” for societal and earth survival (using David Bohm’s language from yesterday’s video). |
| To view today's video, please click the image. You will be taken to today's post on the Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox website, where you can see the meditation in a larger version and also view and post your Comments. In the sharing that follows, a kind of community is developing around the DM.
If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE. |
See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming
Evil in Soul and Society. Banner Image: Falling Leaves. Photo by Benjamin DeYoung on Unsplash |
Queries for Contemplation Can you see a promise of justice and compassion as a provider of “shared meaning” that can buttress society and humanity’s relation to Mother Earth? How do we get there from here? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened
treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and
depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the new Physics | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE
Matthew Fox, Caroline Myss, and Andrew Harvey offer a 3-part series of solo online lectures on “The Power of Truth, Wisdom, Choice Part 2” through
the Sophia Institute in Charleston, SC. Wednesdays, September 21, 28, October 5, 3:00pm-4:30pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Isa Gucciardi for a Teach-in on Liberation and Salvation: Healing Teachings in Buddhism & Christianity, a Convergence Hosted by Cameron
Trimble. Three sessions: September 30, 4-7pm PT; October 1, 9-12pm and 12:30-2:30pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for the monthly online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing Original Blessing. Thursday, October 20, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register
HERE. |
Creation Spirituality in Conversation |
| Join
scholars Matthew Fox and Thomas G. Hermans-Webster for Progressive Christianity's monthly “Things that Matter” discussion on eco-spirituality: “The Intersection of Faith and Climate Justice.” |
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