The Creation
Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
By Gianluigi Gugliermetto 12/19/2025 |
Musing upon my last two DMs — one on deep feeling and the other on sustainability — it occurs to me that the two topics are linked in a profound way. |
One of the accusations that ecologists have recurrently received in the last few decades is that of being “tree huggers.” Such an accusation shows something important about the mind of the accusers: that feelings should be excluded from the |
Women and men of the Chipko ("Hugging") movement in Mahila Mangal Dal village, Uttarakhand, place their bodies between logging contractors and the trees, 1973. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. |
consideration of the ecological issues facing humanity. It is said that rationality should be untouched by emotions, which might veil or obstruct the flow of thinking, especially when matters of the greatest importance are at stake. While this is the classic position of Western modernity, and thus is repeated by
people superficially schooled in such an environment, it is also deeply problematic. We know that reason and emotion play a balanced game in the human mind, and that rational thinking is, in the end, the faculty deputed to the solving of problems. But, as Matthew Fox has often insisted, values do not originate in the intellect but in deep feeling — i.e., they
do not spark in the left brain, but rather in the right brain.
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| People who suffer an injury to their right brain, while keeping intact their rational capabilities, are often in trouble with making decisions that are viable for them. Not because they don’t choose rationally, but because the grounding of their reasoning in values is impaired. Why would we want, then, to exclude right-brain capabilities |
when making decisions that affect society as a whole, as Western modernity seems to suggest and implement all the time? Emmanuel Levinas, the French Jewish thinker, has famously grounded ethics in the experience of “the face of the other.” Not reasoning about ethical principles, but the encounter
eye-to-eye between two human beings, which comprises the reciprocal revealing of vulnerability, is the ground of our humanity. |
I claim the right to be emotionally shattered — not just moved — by the face of a starving child in Palestine or Sudan, and I consider such an experience the correct grounding for my reasoning about the problems affecting those regions of the world. |
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The same holds true for the face of Mother Earth, which keeps being violated. While Levinas’s thinking remains anthropocentric, I believe that his reasoning can thus be extended. In conclusion, I want to be able to be moved by Christmas carols while avoiding sentimentalism. I want to be
able to see in the face of the child Jesus all the children hurt and abandoned by the Herods of our time. And I want to be able to weep, and cry, and groan as the true ground of my actions in the world. The Via Negativa fully lived, so that I might be able to engage fully the Via Transformativa, that is, social change. |
Banner Image: “Holy Family of the Streets.” Image by iconographer Kelly Latimore; used with permission. Purchase HERE. |
Queries for Contemplation What is your experience with tree-hugging, literally and figuratively? Have
you been accused of sentimentalism inappropriately? How have you reacted? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
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| Counterpoint: A Response to Peter Thiel’s Antichrist An Important Conversation with Matthew Fox and Gil Duran Did you miss this two-session series with its powerful counter-narrative rooted in wisdom, justice, and |
authentic spirituality? This is your
chance to add it to your library of classics to be watched, re-watched, and contemplated. Fox explores the archetype of Christ and Antichrist as it plays out in our world today but also in artists of old. He draws from the teachings of Jesus and Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and other mystics and visionaries, illuminating the stark contrast between life-giving and life-destroying spiritual energies. Purchase HERE. |
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a free 4-session Online Lecture/Discussion/Q&A event, “Creation Spirituality and the Celebrating & Healing of Mother Earth & Ourselves,” co-presented by the Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin and Matthew Fox Legacy Project. Wednesdays, January 14, 21,28, February 4, 2026, 4:00pm-5:30pm
PT January 14 - Creation as an Original Blessing and the Springboard of Awe and Wonder January 21 - Sacred Mother Earth: The Holiness of Creation and Recovering the Cosmic Christ January 28 - The Cosmic Mass, and the Stations of the Cosmic Christ: Reinvigorating Liturgy and Rituals February 4 - Jesus as a Teacher of Democracy and the Renewal of Education and Values through the “10 Cs” 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 HERE, Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org |
Awakening the Divine Human: An Immersion in the Living Wisdom of Creation Spirituality …a week-long retreat in Sardinia, Italy, May 25-30, 2026 Join us on the sacred
island of Sardinia for a deeply immersive 6-day retreat rooted in the teachings of Matthew Fox, C.G. Jung, and the ancient wisdom of the land. Set along the turquoise shores and among the Neolithic sites of this timeless Mediterranean island, this retreat invites you into a transformative journey of reconnection—with Earth, Self, Gender, and the Divine. Learn more HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
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. Course includes six modules of pre-recorded lessons. Sign up HERE. |
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