The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Dear
friends, We are sorry to say that our teammate Gianluigi Gugliermetto, who has been writing three DMs each week, will be stepping back temporarily due to health challenges. Please join us in sending prayers for his full recovery! ~~The DM Team |
Ernest Becker Offering
More Thoughts on Saintliness By Matthew Fox 2/11/2025 |
We concluded a three-part meditation on the meaning of saintliness from Leonard Cohen in yesterday’s DM with his definition that a saint is “a balancing monster of love.” |
How does this fit with your versions of saintliness? Does it trigger some open-heartedness in yourself? Does it work for yourself as a saint? And for other saints you admire and wish to emulate? Today we take up another thoughtful person’s wrestling with sainthood in our day, namely
Ernest |
“Exactly what the world needs,” says one teary woman about the monks walking for peace. WUSA9 |
Becker, author of the Pulitzer-prize winning book Denial of Death. In that book he gives Otto Rank ample credit for inspiring and substantiating his primary thesis that repression of death results in the repression of life. I am indebted to Becker for introducing me to Rank in that book when he said that Rank’s Art and Artist was the most important book of his life. When I was invited years ago to give four lectures at the University of Vancouver, the first on “Wisdom in the University,” I met the Lutheran chaplain who knew Becker who lived there while he wrote his Denial of Death. He told me that when Becker shared his manuscript with the University only four people showed up! Becker’s last book was on evil, called Escape From Evil. I cite from it in the preface to the revised edition of my major study on evil, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society. There Becker discusses his interest in saintliness. |
Young man finds ways to show love and compassion toward animals. The
Dodo | He writes that healthy religion offers the possibility of a new heroism, the heroism of
sainthood. This meant living in primary awe at the miracle of the created object…including oneself in one’s own godlikeness. Notice that living in awe of creation is Becker’s definition |
of
a new heroism of saintliness. And it includes entertaining the idea that we too are godlike. All compassion is godlikeness in action after all. This parallels Thomas Berry’s teaching that “the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us.”
And when the sacred is lost, we find it again by way of awe and wonder. Becker goes on: Remember the awesome fascination of St. Francis with the revelations of the everyday world—a bird, a flower. It also meant unafraidness of one’s own death, because of the incomparable majesty and power of God. |
Teilhard de Chardin observed that “religion is becoming enfeebled” because “it is not exalted by a sufficiently passionate admiration of the universe.” Do you find religion enfeebled or becoming enfeebled? And awe and wonder at a premium? The Via Positiva ignored? Becker returns to the issue of
saintliness. If we were not fear-stricken animals who repressed awareness of ourselves and our world, then we would live in peace and unafraid of death, trusting to the Creator God and celebrating His creation. The idea of religious sainthood, |
St. Francis is revered even in suburban Florida. Photo by Cynthia Greb. Used with permission. |
like that of psychoanalysis, is thus the opening up of perception: this is where religion and science meet. |
Saints are involved in the opening up of perception and for that reason rejoice when religion and science meet. The sacred is lost when creation is lost. Those who study creation, scientists, are part of the solution. ~To be continued. |
Queries for Contemplation What follows from Becker’s observation that sainthood is related to the
opening up of perception? Do you agree that science can contribute heartily to that? How does your perception get opened up? How do we best contribute to opening up one another’s perception? |
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. Related Reading by Matthew Fox Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society (2016), pp. xxxviii-xli. Fox, “Otto Rank on the Artistic Journey as a Spiritual Journey, the Spiritual Journey as an Artistic Journey,” Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life, pp. 199-214. Fox, “Psychotherapy and the ‘Unio Mystica’: Meister Eckhart Meets Otto Rank,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times, pp. 139-156. Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations, pp. 361, 218. Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. Natural Grace: Dialogues on creation, darkness, and the soul in spirituality and science, Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake. llluminations of Hildegard of Bingen. Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! CREATION SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS |
Podcaster Jon Wilson speaks with Matthew Fox about Creation Spirituality: how Matthew became a Dominican priest; his studies in Paris, Original Blessing versus the Fall-Redemption tradition; the Four Paths; mystics Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and Otto Rank; Eros, ritual and how ‘this is
wisdom to love life’. Listen HERE. |
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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.
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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. |
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