The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Watch for Matthew Fox's video meditation -- now appearing every Monday! |
Is
“Original Blessing” Part of the Cure
to Today’s Fascism? 05/14/2024 |
Why the rising tide of fascism today? Why the appeal of authoritarianism, strong man politics, “Christian” white nationalism, etc. at this time in history? |
I would like to explore that pressing question in the next several Daily Meditations. I think a big part of the answer relates directly to my book on Original Blessing. Why do I say that? Psychologist Erich Fromm |
Rebel HQ‘s commentator Mondale Robinson addresses the distance between “Christian Nationalist” ideology and
biblical Christian teachings. |
says the key to fascism is self-hatred. I think self-hatred is the key to a lot of addictions born of abuse and trauma that come our way when we are vulnerable. Donald Trump’s self-hatred is apparent daily in the form of projection onto others, name-calling, and, as his
niece Mary Trump has made clear, his abuse at his father’s hands (his father was a Ku Klux Klan member among other things) growing up. I think he appeals to others whose abuse has been unattended. Just this weekend he gave a speech endorsing Hannibal Lecter! |
In this recent conversation with Mark Matousek, Matthew Fox describes how, with the advent of the Black Plague, a sense of the divine in nature was replaced by an obsession with sin and redemption. The Seekers Forum | An ideology of
original sin, if it is taken literally, feeds self-hatred. Offered as a generic cause of evil in us, one can imagine anything one wants about its source. Because one is black? Or gay? Or female? Fill in the blank. It is a dangerous ideology that does not come from
Jesus. |
I know one psychologist, who after finishing our graduate program in creation spirituality, developed the following practice dealing with her patients: At the end of the first session with a client, she would give them my book Original Bessing as they left her office. Ninety percent never came back! She emphasized that it was not because they were turned off by the book, but because the book healed them. Why? She found that bad religion was at the basis of “90%” of peoples’ fears and neuroses. |
Do not tell me—and do not tell my nieces and nephews (or children and grandchildren and great grandchildren if I had them) that I or they are born in original sin. It is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and his entire Jewish lineage. Teach them instead how they are both original
and a blessing. Life is bringing both alive. |
“Original Blessing: The Golden Tent.” Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias. |
Only after my book came out did I discover Aquinas talking about “original goodness” and “original freshness” and Hildegard of Bingen writing and painting “original wisdom.” Both are now saints and doctors of the church. To be continued. |
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See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing.
And Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, p. 100.
And Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 76-82.
Banner Image: “Sunset Valley of Golden Light, Hřensko, Czechia” Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash |
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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 an understanding of Original Blessing as displacing self-hatred which Fromm names as the basis of fascism? Do you agree with him that fascism is born of self-hatred? |
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 |
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Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation
Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to
allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
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Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen
An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of the greatest female artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical
Tradition. At the age of 42, she began to have visions; these were captured as 36 illuminations–24 of which are recorded in this book along with her commentaries on them.
“If one person deserves credit for the great Hildegard renaissance in our time, it is Matthew Fox.” – Dr Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices.
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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 has created a narrative, for every parent and grandparent, both spiritual and
scientific, that is a gift for all elders who recognize their responsibility in initiating the young ones into the grandeur of existence." Cosmologist Brian Swimme, Author of Cosmogenesis and The Universe Story "Matthew Fox has given all of us, children included, a wondrous and enchanting view of creation
and all that humanity should aspire to." - Caroline Myss, Author of Anatomy of the Spirit and A Time for Grace |
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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 |
Matthew Fox speaks on "Preserving Things in the Good" at the Unity of Walnut Creek Earth Day worship service held on April 21, 2024. |
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