The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Divinization and Creativity |
We
have been meditating lately on the cosmos and on divinization, and how near we are to the divine every day. The breath we breathe after all, what we call “spirit,” is a divine gift, according to one creation story in Genesis. |
Sometimes breath is so mild we hardly notice it—even though it signifies our life force. When a new baby arrives and takes its first breath, we call it a marvel, a miracle, a wonder. And when breath leaves us, we call that reality death. Sometimes breath is not mild, but loud and pronounced as thunder. One experience for that is called Pentecost. The arrival of Spirit in a public way, things happen, things
get | The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany in St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Irvington, NY. Photo by Robert Fertitta. Wikimedia Commons. |
shaken up, new
languages being spoken, the tower of Babel being erased, things change and get radically transformed. The Holy Spirit, the same spirit that “hovered over the waters (fireball?) at the
beginning of creation,” hovers over us when we create and give birth, according to Thomas Aquinas. Eckhart says the same Holy Spirit that "came over Mary" to render her the mother of Jesus, does the same when we give birth, when we make things and make things happen. |
1661 chart by Cellarius, illustrating Copernicus’s heliocentric model of the universe, which overturned the commonly-accepted geocentric model. Image by
Andreas Cellarius (1596-1665). Wikimedia Commons. | Divinization is everywhere. We just need eyes and hearts to see it. The word cosmogenesis is trying to say exactly that: That the universe, the
cosmos, is not just here but is busy making things, bringing things into birth, generating and starting things anew all the time. Genesis can be a daily event. It is a habit of the
universe to be birthing all the time, so as we tune in to the cosmos within and among us, we necessarily become more attuned to our own birthing vocation.
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What
are we birthing? What joy? What healing? What compassion? What wonder? What do we choose to share? How are we choosing to enter into the divinizing creativity of the universe? |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. pp.178-187. And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet.
Banner Image: “The Spirit of God moving over the face of the waters:” A storm over the South Pacific ocean. Photo by Fanny Schertzer. Wikimedia Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation How do you see divinization and creativity coming together in yourself and in the greater society? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation
Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story | |
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in
directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
"Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead." --Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing
the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, September 14, 4:00-6:00 pm
PT. To register, click HERE. |
Join Matthew Fox and a speaker’s panel for brief Creation Spirituality presentations, music, songs, prayer, and refreshments in a free online and on-site Celebration of Matthew Fox's donation of papers
to the University of Colorado, Boulder. University of Colorado Boulder Libraries – Center for British & Irish Studies – 5th Floor Thursday, September 21, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT RSVP HERE for on-site attendance only. Virtual attendance link will be forthcoming. |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, October 19, 4:00-6:00 pm
PT. To register, click HERE.
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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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