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Reflections on the
Democratic Convention, Aquinas Included 08/23/2024 |
We began this week by sharing two DMs from Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff on the meaning of a female president of the United States, should that come to pass. And how the whole world is looking on at our election. |
I am writing this DM on Thursday morning following last night’s DNC gathering that included Nancy Pelosi, Oprah, Pete Buttigieg, President Clinton and the newly nominated vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz. Other lesser-known |
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figures also offered insight and verve. I have to confess that I have found each day of the convention to be rich in meaning and spirituality. I can honestly say I have had a spiritual experience watching it each day. One feature that struck me about Tim Walz’s speech was the presence in his speech, known to
him or not, of values articulated by Thomas Aquinas. I was pleased to hear him speak explicitly of the common good. Aquinas is credited with bringing this concept into the West (he got it from Aristotle). Another emphasis in Walz’s and Harris’ language centers around Joy. There is a reason why I
named my major book on Aquinas Sheer Joy—since he says, “Sheer joy is God’s and this demands companionship." In other words, the whole universe exists for the purpose of joy. It is fitting that joy should be an integral part of any authentic political movement, one that keeps the common good as a central value and north star. |
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| Joy, after all, is born of love—as Aquinas
makes explicit. Love is behind this new politics, therefore. A moving moment for me during Walz’s speech (and I know I am not alone) was seeing the response of Gus, his 17-year-old son, who was crying and mouthing the words, “That’s my dad.” It is a beautiful |
thing to see a young man cry and connect to the vocation his father is playing out on a public stage. It says a lot about the noble vocation of fatherhood. For the last two days I have been sharing my new book on today’s politics, Trump & MAGA as Antichrist: A Handbook for the
2024 Election. The first page of the book is a series of quotes from Aquinas who I believe helps name this moment for us. What brought me to Orvieto, where I was so struck by a fresco in the Cathedral devoted to “The Anti-Christ” and that inspired my book, was that I was teaching a workshop on Aquinas, including his teachings on the Via Transformativa. I share here some of his observations from that first page of my book that strike me as very timely for the 2024 election. Christ teaches the dignity of human nature….and the full participation in Divinity which is truly humanity’s happiness and the goal of human life. – Thomas
Aquinas. |
The disregard of the common good is greater under an oligarchy than under a democracy, where, after all, the welfare of the majority has been attempted. But worst of all is a tyranny where the advantage of one man is sought… |
Republican political strategist Ana Navarro warns against the GOP candidate with examples of dictatorships in Central and South America. PBS NewsHour |
The rule of a tyrant is worst. Security is banished and everything is uncertain when people are cut off from law and depend on the will, I would even say the greed, of another. A tyrant oppresses the bodies of his subjects, but what is more damnable, he threatens their spiritual growth, for he is set on his own power, not their progress. He is suspicious of any dignity that they may possess that will prejudice his own
iniquitous domination. A tyrant is more fearful of good persons than of bad persons, for he dreads their strange virtue. Fearful lest they grow strong and so stout of heart as no longer to brook his wicked despotism, but resolve in companionship to enjoy the fruits of peace, a tyrant
is constrained to destroy good people’s confidence in one another, lest they band together to throw off his yoke. Therefore, he sows discord among them, and encourages dissensions and litigation. – Thomas Aquinas Avarice gives rise to insensibility to compassion, because one’s heart is
not softened by compassion to assist the needy with one’s riches… It also gives rise to restlessness, by hindering one with excessive anxiety and care, for ‘an avaricious man shall not be satisfied with money.’ – Ecclesiastes 5:9 The avaricious in acquiring other people’s goods, sometimes employ force, which pertains to violence; sometimes deceit, and then if they have recourse to words, it is falsehood, if it be mere words; perjury if they confirm their statement by oath. If they have recourse to deeds, and the deceit affects things, we have fraud. – Thomas Aquinas |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 162, 471f., 493.
See also: Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine.
And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce
Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 33-44, 101-112.
And Fox, Trump & MAGA as Antichrist: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, p. ix.
Banner Image: Full circle: Hillary Clinton receives the presidential nomination at the 2016 Democratic convention. This week, in a “cathartic” speech before the 2024 Convention,
she passed the torch to Kamala Harris. Photo by Maggie Hallahan on Wikimedia Commons |
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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 |
Did you have spiritual experiences this week watching the Democratic National Convention? What brought that about? Do you agree with Aquinas that to talk of Joy is to talk of love? Does that constitute a “new politics” such as Pete Buttigieg called for? |
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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The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an
ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael
Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God |
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The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and
action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author
of Anatomy of the Spirit |
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Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s
rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline
Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine. |
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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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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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