The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Matthew Fox as a Young Man:
the Turning Points 07/21/2023
by Rick Reich-Kuykendall |
Matthew Fox was born on the winter solstice, in 1940, in St. Mary’s Hospital, in Madison, Wisconsin. From his book, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, we
find that he contracted polio when he was twelve years old and the doctors told him he’d never walk again. |
However, after months in the hospital he could walk! Looking back in his
autobiography, Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest, he writes: My vocation began with my polio experience. I became a more serious person, a more conscious one as we would say today. And more
sensitized….In retrospect, I can see that my having polio was | Timothy Fox as a young boy. From Matthew Fox’s personal collection, reprinted in Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational
Priest. |
a kind of rite of passage or coming of age. Four years later, as a senior in high school, he chose to join the Dominicans. In 1958 he went to college at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and in two years entered the novitiate for formal training as a Dominican near Winona, Minnesota. It was there that he was greeted as “Matthew”–his new name—his birth name being Timothy. After taking his vows, Fox went on to Chicago to the Dominican House of Studies. And while in Chicago he heard Hans Küng speak at McCormick Center on “Is there a difference between the modus operandi of the Vatican and that of the Kremlin?” This set the “still-pious” Fox to thinking, and
it would stay with him for years. |
Matthew Fox as a novice in the Dominican order. Photo from personal collection.
| Vatican II brought huge changes for the Church,
and Fox committed himself to the vision of Pope John XXIII. After taking his final vows, he moved to the Dominican House of Studies in Dubuque, Iowa for his master’s in theology. In Confessions, he shares that Martin Heidegger’s Being
and Time |
awakened the mystic in him, and so he thought of being a Trappist or a hermit. But what he lacked, he says, was “spirituality and the mystics.” He wrote to Thomas Merton, asking him where he should study for a Ph. D. that would focus on spirituality, and Merton responded that he would find it in Paris. And so it was that the Dominicans allowed him to go to Paris for his Ph.D. To be continued |
See Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest, pp. 27, 28, 44-46, 60. Also see Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond. Banner Image: Matthew Fox entered his vocation at a time of
transformation for the Catholic Church: the second Vatican Council in public session. Catholic Press Photo. Wikimedia Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation Consider writing the story of your spiritual journey. Not only will it be rewarding to remember where you’ve been and where you’ve come to, it will also be something to leave behind as a roadmap of the way that you chose to go and where it took you. |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
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website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from
altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity,
and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self | |
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 and Brian Swimme in a free online event hosted by The Shift Network: “Hope for Humanity’s Future: Science, Spirituality & the Noosphere: Find Deeper Meaning in Our Spiritual Traditions With Illuminating Insights in Science & Technology.” Saturday, July 22,
10:00am PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for a Cosmic Mass and Panel Forum at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions - A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights, August 14-18 in Chicago, IL Wed., 8/16, 7:00pm CT - The Cosmic Mass - Honoring Gaia, Solidarity for Our Earth Thurs., 8/17, 1:00pm CT – Panel and Response to The Cosmic Mass Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Aaron Perry hosts Matthew Fox on the Y On
Earth podcast, on “Hildegard von Bingen & Her “Viriditas,” sharing profound wisdom and deep insights about the essential importance of our relationship with Mother Earth, our celebration of the Divine Feminine, and our connection with Creation Spirituality, drawing upon centuries
of knowledge and wisdom from indigenous and mystical traditions world-wide… particularly from the Rhineland Mystic Movement of the medieval European Renaissance, and a most extraordinary woman at its helm: Hildegard von Bingen. | |
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