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! |
Scripture on “The Nobility Inside” 06/08/2024 |
[FROM THE ARCHIVE, 5/31/2019] We continue our exploration of the theme, “The Nobility Inside” which is such good medicine for a time when fascism is on the rise at home and abroad, because it addresses the foundational issue: self-hatred, according to psychologist Erich
Fromm. |
The Hebrew Scriptures speak of royal personhood being a sign of the messianic times. For example, Psalm 2 sings: “You are my son, today I have begotten you.” Psalm 110 also celebrates this passing on of the divine royal kingship. In Israel, the king is responsible, above all, for justice and therefore survival of the community. |
Christians believe that such a royal person occurred in the person of Jesus who is with the people and calls for both love and justice. Above all, he calls people to the kingdom/queendom of God; that is, he invites all peoples to be royal persons. He calls them to their dignity as images of God—a theology of human dignity and royal personhood. The Yahwist author and Jesus call people to two things in reminding them |
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their royal personhood: First, their dignity. Next, their responsibility. A royal person has dignity, a nobility, that proves a starting point for their release from captivity. By reclining with them at table Jesus made the dispossessed feel “clean and acceptable” in God’s eyes. As Albert Nolan observes, Jesus offers the poor “the full recognition of their dignity as human beings,” and it is by this power that the poor become empowered. “He gave them a sense of dignity and
released them from their captivity.” The Good News that Jesus brings is News that all are considered royal persons by God, all have rights, all have divine dignity. He is sensitive to the pain that the oppressed undergo but insists that no one can rob them of their divine and royal dignity. |
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| All of Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom represents a crescendo in the Jewish teaching of royal personhood. This teaching includes the assurance that Yahweh would
make the anawim (those without a voice) a royal people. |
But
with the dignity of all persons—who are all royal persons—comes responsibility: The responsibility for justice-making and preserving creation. On the part of the poor, this means being actively involved in asserting one’s dignity and therefore one’s rights, and of letting go of internalized oppression created by negative self-images that others may have handed on. On the part of those who are comfortable, this means letting go of privilege and siding with the afflicted. This
challenge of Jesus is put forth in many parts of the gospels. |
Matthew Fox, Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 510-530. Banner image: "The unveiling of the new Torah display at Trinity International University" in Chicago. Photo by Taylor Flowe on Unsplash |
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Responses are welcomed. To add
your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE. |
Queries for Contemplation |
In prayerful meditation, sit with the following questions: what are the insights that they open within you? - Do you feel you are born “from the most intimate depths of the divine nature and its
wilderness?”
- How does that feel to you?
- What does it mean about relationships with others?
- How do you wrestle with finding your true self as
distinct from your false (or external) self?
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In this book 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). Here Fox lays out the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
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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. |
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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 |
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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 and 11 other speakers for a 6-week course on Cosmic Water: The Radical Roots of Mystical Christianity hosted by Advaya.Life (Matthew speaks on June 18). Tuesdays, May 28 - Thursday, July 4, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT Register HERE (for 10% discount use code
FOX-WOW) |
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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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