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Young
on Campuses and Truth on the Rise: Thoughts from Heschel 05/08/2024 |
If anything characterizes the politics of our time–and the distorted media and social media in our time–it is the disregard for truth.
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Rabbi Heschel underscored what is at stake when truth gets lost: Truth is severe, harsh, demanding. We would rather hide our face in the sand than be confronted by it. Denial is not truth; denial becomes popular when truth is inconvenient or does not serve our ideologies. |
Trailer of An Inconvenient Sequel, Al Gore’s follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth, tracing the spectrum of the world’s responses to the dangers of climate change. Paramount Pictures. |
Fascism distorts truth and sells denial. For example, what does it mean when an entire political party remains in denial of climate change? Why would that be? Maybe because politicians eagerly accept fossil fuel dark money that pays them to hide their heads in the sand? “Truth” is
an apt name for Divinity. Yet Heschel warns how a “theory of God can easily become a substitute for God” and this happens “when God as a living reality is absent from the soul.” Selling Bibles, citing it and reading it is no substitute for “God as a living reality” being absent from the soul. |
Anti-Zionist Jews protest in solidarity with Palestinians. Photo by Alisdare Hickson on Flickr. Click the photo for information on the calls for justice made in the protest. | The mystics– including the mystic in us–experiences God as a living reality. If God is justice and God is compassion, then carrying that reality into one’s work and citizenship is what God talk is all
about. |
God-Talk becomes
God-Action. These blunt words from Heschel written in 1951 seem to name the spirit of 2024: The decay of conscience fills the air with a pungent smell. Good and evil, which were once as distinguishable as day and night, have become a blurred mist. But that mist is man-made. God is not
silent. He has been silenced. The God who “is the source of qualms, conscience and compassion, finds very few ears.” We live in a world where “truth [is] flouted, compassion sloughed, violence applauded,” says Heschel (1973). We live in “an age of spiritual blackout, a blackout of God” and should be on
the lookout for “single sparks and occasional rays, upon moments full of God’s grace and radiance.” (1969)* |
The demonstrations on college campuses of young people on behalf of justice are such sparks and rays of grace and radiance. And so it is that young |
The reinstated Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, fifth day. Wikimedia Commons. |
people are protesting the untruths and injustice and cold heartedness of the war in Gaza. Good for them! The adults and their sclerotic institutions of government, academia, industry and religion need such an awakening. |
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your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialog, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Queries for Contemplation |
Do you see a connection between education and the search for Truth? Between learning and the search for truth? |
Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God …Including the Unnameable God
Too often, notions of God have been used as a means to control and to promote a narrow worldview.
In Naming the Unnameable, renowned theologian and author Matthew Fox ignites our imaginations by offering a colorful range of Divine Names gathered from scientists and poets and mystics past and present, inviting us to always begin where true spirituality begins: from experience.
“This book is timely, important and admirably brief; it is also open ended—there are always
more names to come, and none can exhaust God’s nature.” -Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, author of Science Set Free and The Presence of the Past |
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In the Beginning There Was Joy: A Cosmic Celebration for Kids of All Ages
The first book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series tells the story of the big bang and how humans fit into the awesome, fantastical,
cosmic picture! With artwork curated from illustrators around the world, this book expresses the joy and wonder of all peoples and cultures, planting seeds of respect, cooperation and hope to work together for the healing of our planet. "Matthew Fox does it again, here for our young ones, who so need a positive, cosmic vision
to thrive, or even survive, in a sad time." - Father Richard Rohr, Author of The Universal Christ "Matthew Fox offers a resounding affirmation of what our souls have always suspected: we are made for joy." - Mirabai Starr, Author of God of Love and Wild Mercy Receive a 20% discount when you buy this and one other book from Matthew Fox’s store! Use Promo Code 20% at checkout. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a new, live, 7-week video course hosted by the Shift Network, Cultivating Compassion in Spirituality: What Meister Eckhart & Other World Mystics Can Teach Us About Navigating Collective Turmoil. Tuesdays, May 7 – June 25, 5:00pm - 6:30pm PT. Register HERE. |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book with scientist Rupert Sheldrake, Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness and the Soul in Spirituality and Science in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, May 16, 4:00-5:30 pm PT.
Register HERE. |
Join keynote speakers Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme at the 2024 Creation Spirituality Communities Gathering on “Reimagining Our Story, Hope for Humanity,” live at Cape Cod, MA and by livestream. Friday, May 31 – Sunday, June 2. Learn more and register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Ilia Delio and theologian Matthew Fox pick up on their conversation about the viability of contemporary religious institutions in an evolutionary world. They discuss death and resurrection—the enduring challenge of modern approaches to the subject and what we can learn from mystics, past generations and ancient peoples alike. To listen, click HERE. |
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