The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Deep thanks goes out to Richard Reich who has been with us from the beginning of the DM four years ago. He has offered responses to the daily Comments as well as support behind the scenes with typing up passages from Matt's previous writings,
etc. He will be missed by the DM team, but we thank him for his many contributions to the DM team and wish him well in his continued creative work including painting and writing. We also welcome a new team member, Dr. Carol Vaccariello, who like Rick has
a rich background as a parish minister (and previous to that as a Catholic sister) and as co-director of the Doctorate of Ministry program at the University of Creation Spirituality for many years. She is also an author of The Lion of God: Archangel Ari'El and has worked as a chaplain on merchant ships on the high seas! Welcome aboard, Carol! |
Finally! Vatican Repudiates Doctrine of Discovery
04/01/2023 |
Major religious news came through on Thursday, March 30. The Vatican has finally
put distance between itself and the three treacherous papal bulls of the 15th century promulgated by two popes that in effect granted carte blanche permission for “Christian nations” to rape indigenous cultures with impunity because they were not Christian. A horrible chapter in church and religious history, finally disowned. |
Some of the awakening in the Vatican occurred when Pope Francis made his trip to Canada this past year and met with some indigenous leaders who brought up the topic with him. | "Catholic Church repudiates Doctrine of Discovery that
justified Indigenous oppression." CBS News on YouTube |
I have brought it up in many of my writings including my recent book on Julian of Norwich. The Doctrine of Discovery after all was premised on the
theology of fall and redemption that ignores a theology of the goodness of creation such as Julian espoused. Thus, in my book on her, I pose the question this way: |
| What if, instead of demanding redemption of non-Christian peoples in Africa and the Americas, the European explorers had put the goodness of creation at the forefront of their spirituality? How different would history have been if Julian’s religious vision which leads with the goodness of |
creation prompted the encounters between Europe and indigenous peoples the worldover? And I present a challenge to the theology behind the Doctrine of Discovery: Let’s be blunt. Though Augustine laid the groundwork for it in the fourth century with his misbegotten, unbiblical, and un-Jewish concept of
original sin, the ascendency of the related doctrines of the fall and redemption in Western Christianity took flight with the bubonic plague. (The East rejected original sin outright.) This version of Christianity was a religion of fear, not trust; of anthropocentrism, not creation; of dominance, not love and compassion. These “doctrines” gave power to Christian kings and queens to confiscate lands and enslave peoples in Africa and the “New World” soon called the Americas. A fall/redemption
theology was at the heart of this imperial conquest by “Christian” potentates. |
Like a wildfire, with heat and high winds fanning the blaze, the doctrine of discovery spread over the next century with the Protestant reformers and the egotistical and “neurotic” (Stendahl) and introverted question “Am I saved?” that Protestantism preached and Roman Catholicism sold. This religion took western Christianity far off track—a | |
detour away
from love of creation and recognizing nature as a source of revelation and the divine, which Hildegard, Francis, Aquinas, Eckhart, and Julian espouse. ~to be continued. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, pp. xxxviii, 114ff. Banner image: “A Metis family poses with their Red River carts in a field in western North Dakota. (1883)“
The Metis were among the indigenous groups who met with the Pope in 2022. Wikimedia Commons. Public
domain. |
Queries for Contemplation
How are you going to
celebrate this awakening by the Vatican to the rights and dignity of indigenous peoples everywhere and its admission of bad religious teachings?
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Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic--and Beyond Julian of Norwich lived through the dreadful bubonic plague that killed close to 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep wisdom that she shared in her book, Showings, which was the first book in
English by a woman. A theologian way ahead of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mother at the heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings in this powerful and timely and inspiring book.
“What an utterly magnificent book. The work of Julian of Norwich, lovingly supported by the genius of Matthew Fox, is a roadmap into the heart of the eco-spiritual truth that all life breathes together.”
–Caroline Myss
Now also available as an audiobook HERE. | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox online as he offers a Worship Service Inspirational Message - “Otto Rank, and Pere Chenu: Two 'Real, Raw and Radiant' Guides calling us to Deep Freedom” for
Brentwood Inspired Living Center, Sunday, April 16, 10:00 am PT. Learn more HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “Creativity – Where the Divine and the Human Meet” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, April 20, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Karen Tate interviews Matthew on his latest book Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality to discuss religious vs. spiritual, the nature of evil and angels, compassion vs pity, and wisdom vs knowledge. On Voices of the Sacred Feminine with Karen Tate. Listen HERE. | |
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