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Teilhard, Aquinas and Creation Spirituality 06/11/2024 |
Teilhard was accused of being “too pagan.” I was criticized for “working too closely with Native Americans.” (I think that might be a criticism of our having a sweat lodge on Holy Names College campus but I cannot be sure since Cardinal Ratzinger never spelled it out for me.) |
Of course, we also taught Native American spirituality courses conducted by Lakota teacher Buck Ghosthorse and by Seneca teacher and Franciscan sister, Jose Hobday. Of course, Aquinas was criticized for bringing the |
Sweat lodge. Photo by Hvoenok, Adobe Stock |
“pagan” scientist Aristotle into the heart of Christian faith. His response? “Revelation has been made to many pagans” and “the old pagan virtues were from God.” And “Every truth without exception—and whoever may utter it–is from the Holy Spirit.” Teilhard talked about “how to see God
everywhere.” If that is not creation spirituality, I don’t know what is. The Four Paths help us to “see God everywhere” in all our deepest feelings and encounters and dreams and ruptures. And in our work, both inner and outer. |
A prayer and visual meditation on Teilhard’s teaching
of the Divine Milieu. Zoomi’s Prayers | When Teilhard speaks of
“the Divine Milieu,” he is surely speaking of panentheism, God in us and us in God, God in all things and all things in God. A “Milieu” displaces theism or subject/object relations with the divine. |
Teilhard criticized organized religion and sensed a difference between what we call spirituality and what we call religion. In fact, he warned about the “enfeeblement” of contemporary religion (he was writing of course in the first half of the 20th century). He said:
Because it is not sufficiently moved by a truly human compassion, because it is not exalted by a sufficiently passionate admiration of the universe, our religion is becoming enfeebled. |
We are too cut off from awe and wonder and a “passionate admiration of the universe” because we are too anthropocentric, living our lives entirely in our man-made worlds. It follows that we lack a “truly human compassion,” being cut off from our deepest |
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roots, which derive from “the nutritious energies of the Earth.” A solution is found in reconnecting to the Earth, the work of the first chakra. Teilhard put it this way: Our own age seems primarily to need a rejuvenation of supernatural forces to be effected by driving roots deeply
into the nutritious energies of the Earth.
All this brings back a “passionate admiration of the universe.” Awe and wonder, the Via Positiva returns.
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Adapted from Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations, p. 216.
And Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, p. 31.
And Fox, “Theme 6: Panentheism: Experiencing the Diaphanous and Transparent God,” in
Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, pp. 88-92.
Banner Image: Meditation in a meadow, first chakra on the Earth. Photo by Léonard
Cotte on Unsplash |
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Responses are welcomed. To add
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 agree with Teilhard that our religion is enfeebled? How can we recover a sense of community and compassion and admiration?
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Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in
Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion
and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless
Youth. |
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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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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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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
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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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