The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
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Moral Imagination, Immoral Imagination
& An Energy Breakthrough By Matthew Fox 6/24/2025 |
In my recent DMs, I have been praising the power of human creativity—to make the world a better place. The power of the Via Creativa cannot be underestimated for solving problems, healing, building community, celebrating the common good, creating a better democracy and a world that “works for everyone.” And resisting. |
Of course our creativity also makes evil more powerful. Lying, destroying, working out of self-hatred that culminates in sadism toward others–that too takes imagination. That is why Otto Rank defines neurosis as the artiste manquee. And Erich Fromm found that sadism is born of self-hatred. |
A group of young people brainstorm ideas for diabetes advocacy. Photo by the South African NGO Sweet Life on Unsplash. |
And why Thomas Aquinas can say that one human being is capable of doing more evil than all the other species put together. Potter M. C. Richards insists that a “primary goal” of education is to develop imagination and “moral imagination.” To imagine and create “what is not yet.” It is why poet Denise Levertov says that Man’s capacity for evil, then, is less a positive capacity, for all its horrendous activity, than a failure to develop man’s most human function, the imagination, to its fullness, and consequently a failure to develop compassion.* Let us unpack this powerful, practical and insightful observation by Levertov a bit. First of all, she is calling our imagination our “most human function.” Is it? If she is right, are we giving imagination the attention it deserves in our educational systems? Are we nourishing it and stretching it and above all giving it some guidelines toward what is good and beautiful and
just? |
Imagination as shapeshifting: “The Eagle and the Hawk” by John Denver. Video meditation by ergonomover. | Art as meditation does that. This is why I employ it in all my efforts over the years in teaching spirituality. Whether in workshops or master’s or doctoral or inner-city high school programs, I have seen powerful and positive results. Art as med employs what Einstein called the “intuitive brain”
(as opposed to just the “rational |
brain”) and therefore values. Values, he insists, come only from the intuitive brain and not from the rational brain as such. Levertov insists that the fullness of imagination is Compassion. Think about that—the most “ripe” or “mature” (terms very dear to Jesus in the gospels but
mistranslated often as “perfect”) use of our “fullest capacity” is: Compassion. This means that those who teach and practice compassion—whether Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Jesus or any of us—are exhibiting the culmination of what it means to be human. And divine. |
Just like Jesus said: “Be you compassionate as your Father/Mother in the heavens is compassionate.” That compassion directs the work of the universe and it certainly deserves to direct the work on earth. This is why one prays that heaven and earth may come together, cosmos and psyche, the divine and the human. The |
“Launching The Faroe Islands Space Program – a space program that never leaves earth.” Minesto |
best use of our imaginations is to put them to the service of compassion. I love the news that just appeared today. A headline announces that “Neither the United States nor China, this small country of 50,000 people came up with an idea to
create energy from the Moon.” A small country wrestling with the number one moral issue of our time, the survival of the planet, offers a clean and effective energy breakthrough—one that aligns itself to lunar gravity and captures tidal energy from an underwater kite system. Targeting the predictable power of ocean currents affected by
the moon’s gravitational pull, it works 24 hours per day and is cheap to harness all round the world. God bless human imagination. And steer it from evil to the true common good. |
SIGN THE PLEDGE: Boycott pro-Trump corporations. Faithful America. EngageForDemocracy offers curated trustworthy reporting, educational resources, and action campaigns to hold government accountable to the Constitution and democratic norms.
*Cited in Matthew
Fox, Original Blessing, p. 229.
See also: Matthew Fox, “Deep Ecumenism, Ecojustice, and Art as Meditation,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets, pp. 215-242.
See Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
Banner Image: Hollywood icon Hedy Lamarr moonlighted as a WWII co-inventor of the technology that powers today’s WIFI, Bluetooth, and GPS, among other inventions. U.S. Navy graphic by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Andrew Eder, Wikimedia Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation |
Do you agree that imagination is humanity’s “most human function”? Do you get excited about those who are putting our powerful human imaginations to work in science and technology to solve existential problems like displacing fossil fuels with lunar tide-driven energy? |
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. |
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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Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life
In one of his foundational works, Fox engages with some of history’s
greatest mystics, philosophers, and prophets in profound and hard-hitting essays on such varied topics as Eco-Spirituality, AIDS, homosexuality, spiritual feminism, environmental revolution, Native American spirituality, Christian mysticism, Art and Spirituality, Art as Meditation, Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism and more. |
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Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to
teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John
Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
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A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew
Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our
deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register |
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Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling
author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics |
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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.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white
images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a new 6-month program of mystical wisdom for a new world.
In this 6-month immersion program with Matthew, you’ll explore what it means to be a modern mystic and prophet, integrating this sacred knowledge into your life through the authentic teachings of Jesus and other wisdom keepers. This journey births what Matthew calls Christianity 2.0 — based not on dogma, but on a spirituality that recovers the sacred sense of original goodness. By Application only - apply HERERegister for a free information session HERE |
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| Join Matthew Fox in a 6-Class Course: The Great Christian Mystics, exploring some of the richest and most
inspiring mystic-prophets in the Christian lineage, including Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Thomas Aquinas, and Meister Eckhart. Open-ended course includes six modules of pre-recorded lessons, live community discussions, and live conversations with Matthew Fox. Starts Tuesday, May 20; 10% off discount code: FOX-10 Register HERE. |
MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88665302478
Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org
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July 18, 11:30 am PT -- Join Matthew Fox in Angelology: The Physics of Angels, hosted by The Fintry Trust. Learn more HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
"On Forming a Unitive Consciousness." (To listen, click on the photo below.) |
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