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Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Dr. King on the Failures of Religion 01/16/2023 |
Dr. Martin Luther King, whose Feast Day we celebrate today, had his criticism of church and religion. |
He talked of a “mighty struggle” that he and the civil rights movement were engaged in and criticized the churches for hiding behind both the comfort of “stained glass windows” and dualistic philosophies that refused to engage in that struggle. Said he: I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular. All too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing
security of stained-glass windows. | |
Notice that King’s disappointment with ministers who claim that the gospel is not concerned with social issues is fired by an awareness of the philosophy behind that morally lackadaisical attitude: the dualistic theology that separates body from soul and sacred from secular. To ignore the body is to ignore the body politic and the suffering in the body politic. King rightly points out that these dualisms are “un-Biblical.” The prophets were not “ascetic,” as Abraham Heschel makes clear--they were passionate people passionate about injustice and suffering caused by humans against humans and against the earth. |
Thich Nhat Hanh sitting next to his friend, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Photo taken from website of Plum Village. | This is why the world view of St. Augustine is so dangerous, he was so enamored of Neo Platonism that he downplayed injustice and favored an “introspective conscience” over societal justice. This is why he became, as Carol Quigley, an historian and professor from the Catholic University of America called a “lightning rod” for right wing movements for almost 1500
years. |
This is also why a Nobel prize winning physicist said that Augustine “killed science in the West for 1000 years.” The late Pope Benedict XVI was thoroughly Augustinian and thoroughly dualistic in his mindset. He too has become a “lightening rod” for extreme right wing Catholics who are invested in killing thinking and theologians in the church, hell bent on preventing leadership by women and refuse to study
what science has taught us about homosexuality.
To be continued |
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Adapted from Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations, pp. 324f. Banner Image: The third Selma Civil Rights March frontline. From far left: John Lewis, an unidentified nun; Rev. Ralph Abernathy; Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Nobel laureate Ralph Bunche; Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel; Rev. Frederick Douglas Reese. Second row: Rev. Joseph Ellwanger; between Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Bunche is Rabbi Maurice
Davis. Wikimedia Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation What happens when one separates body from soul and matter from spirit and science from theology as Augustine and Benedict did and as King critiques? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As
Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry. “Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us I wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this
book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless youth | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox at the virtual Our Lady of the Prairie retreat, offering a discussion and Q&A on “Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable
God.” Thursday, January 19, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he speaks on “The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times” in a virtual event hosted by the Weber Retreat and Conference Center Thursday, January 26, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox at the Center for Contemporary Mysticism discusses “Birthing a New World: Can Creation-Centered Spirituality Help Reclaim the Sacredness of the Earth?" | |
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