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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox 

More Stories and Teachings from 
Teilhard de Chardin

06/05/2024

One story that really rang a bell for me in the new film on Teilhard was this: The original buzz saw he ran into with the Vatican happened from a modest article he wrote on original sin. That was the match that first lit a fire against him, a fire that died down.

It rang a bell because my book, Original Blessing, treated the same topic, namely original sin, and it is what got me in so much trouble with orthodox hunters 65 years after Teilhard. He stayed in the Jesuits but always on the edge and in exile (after 

“Targeted by the Inquisition.” Matthew Fox speaks with Paul Jay of The Real News Network about the events leading up to his being silenced by the Vatican.

China came the US). I was expelled from my Order for refusing to walk away from my work in Creation Spirituality.

Teilhard reacted early in his life against the spirituality of Thomas à Kempis in his book, Imitation of Christ, because it espoused a “flight from the world” and proposed that the real world is heaven. It proposed a “contempt for the world.” Did this mean Teilhard had to give up his passion for studying rocks? And choose between God or the earth? 

One with the All. Kheerganga Trek, Khir Ganga, Himachal Pradesh, India. Photo by Kunal Goswami on Unsplash

Such concerns are basic to anyone embarking on a Creation Spirituality perspective. I too read Kempis as a teenager, and I cite him disapprovingly in an early book for telling us that “every time I go into creation I withdraw from God.”

For Teilhard, “matter is energy and energy is spirit. Therefore the universe is a spiritual universe.”  

That is Creation Spirituality. He learned to move beyond dualism which, in his words, “disappeared like mist in a rising sun.”

Matter is not dead or inanimate “but infused with Spirit.” Evolution is an unfinished creation that still continues.  

Christ is at work in the cosmos and creation. One is to “love Christ and the universe.” He dedicated his Divine Milieu, “for those who love the world.”  

It is easy to see Teilhard as a key figure in the Creation Spirituality movement and lineage. He has come a long way from Thomas à Kempis. And he beckons us to heed the future. 

As cosmologist Brian Swimme said recently in a gathering of 

“Introduction to the Noosphere: The Planetary Mind” Narrator Brian Swimme expands upon Teilhard’s concept of the noosphere as an emerging superorganism or planetary mind. Human Energy

CSC (Creation Spirituality Communities) where we each presented and dialogued with each other, Teilhard’s term “Omega” is a vocation, a calling, a final cause inviting us to the next stage of our evolution, the unification of our species.

See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

And Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest.

Banner Image: The healing energies of nature. Photo by Patrick on Unsplash

Statement of Solidarity with Israel/Palestine.

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Queries for Contemplation

Are you on board with Teilhard that our universe is a spiritual and sacred place infused with Spirit?

Recommended Reading

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

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.

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

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

UPCOMING EVENTS

See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE

LEARN MORE 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.

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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