Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest

by Matthew Fox

One of the most controversial and influential priests of our day -- bestselling author of Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, and The Reinvention of Work -- reflects on a lifetime of passionate faith. Matthew Fox's radical theology comes alive in this highly charged autobiography, which traces his spiritual evolution from altar boy in Madison, Wisconsin, to graduate student in revolution-rocked late-sixties Paris, to Dominican priest, to his high-profile battles with the Vatican. Best known for recovering the Creation Spirituality tradition, which brings together ecology, cosmology, justice, and mysticism in a theology based on "original blessing," Fox continues to be one of the most original thinkers in the church today. Finally, Fox addresses his new role as a "post-denominational priest" and a leader for urban young people.

Genres: Memoir, Religion, Nonfiction, Theology, Spirituality

299 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Timothy James "Matthew " Fox is an American priest and theologian. Formerly a member of the Dominican Order within the Catholic Church, he became a member of the Episcopal Church following his expulsion from the order in 1993.
Fox has written 35 books that have been translated into 68 languages and have sold millions of copies and by the mid-1990s had attracted a "huge and diverse following"

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once in awhile, one reads a book that speaks DIRECTLY to one's life. This is one of those books for me. It chronicles Fox's spiritual journey, a journey that I can personally relate to although I am not a clergy person. He speaks of the same conflicts and questions that I had as a young person growing up in the same era, and he continues to speak to me in my later years. It is inspiring, challenging, and worth STUDY, for it has taken me months of reading and reflection. For those on a spiritual journey themselves, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

[Margie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very chronological autobiography. I was expecting a bit more about the development of creation spirituality or about being silenced by the Vatican and then kicked out of the Dominican order. Although those things are covered, more care seems to be given to making sure each phase of his life is covered. Enjoyable and interesting.

[James R · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd not rate Matthew Fox's Confessions very highly as a general interest read. For a pretty detailed history of a time and a theological movement seen through one man's eyes, efforts and experiences though, it may be quite interesting and valuable. One thing's for sure Father Fox kept detailed journals. His life and work are surely an inspiration to spiritual and political activists for change. His insights, observations and convictions that Christianity as he knows it and practices it has relevance to the modern world, deserve thoughtful consideration. Conservatives would not agree with that last sentence. Those who already know Fox and his ideas will probably enjoy and appreciate this update of his autobiographical chronicle of his life, work, and ideas. It's not, I think, the first book of his to begin with.

[Rory Fox · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book began in its first half with an interesting overview of the peoples and places which influenced the author’s life. Told in a broadly chronological way it was an engaging collection of anecdotes and incidents.

About half-way through the book, the style switched to a more jumbled collection of thoughts and episodes. I found this second half of the book far less-interesting and consequently harder to plow through.

The overall story of the author’s life was relatively clear. But the book seemed to lack a degree of introspection and self-analysis at some of the critical junctures. For example, a significant element of the story is the author’s conflict with the Vatican and his ‘silencing’ for a year. This is told as a baddies (Vatican) vs goodies (author) narrative, with key persons in the Vatican described in derogatory terms. Ratzinger, for example, is a ‘pitiful man’ who (in the author’s opinion) kills theology and theologians (75%). He is (misleading) described as being a Nazi soldier for 5 years (51%) and he is said to get others to do his ‘dirty work’ (67%)

Okay, so that is how the author sees things. But where is the reflection and the attempt to understand matters from the opposite perspective? The author makes it clear throughout the book that he was departing from a traditional understanding of Catholic theology. The author tells us that the first Dominican report into his work even makes the same point when it stated ‘his theology seems to be at variance with the commonly held teaching of the Church.’ (35%)

So if even the author’s supporters recognised that he was ‘at variance’ with Catholic theology, why was the author so surprised that the Vatican had concerns about his theology? Looking at the issues from the Vatican’s perspective he could be described as selling a product branded ‘Catholic’ which in their opinion was not-sufficiently catholic. They were effectively accusing him of mis-selling.

Surely the interesting question to probe at that point in the book is who determines what counts as Catholicity? Is it really the Pope and his agents such as Ratzinger or is there a different way of looking at matters (which is consistent with the tradition of Catholic theology)? This is the crucial question which either proves or disproves the author’s criticism of the Vatican. Yet, it was barely addressed, and the book just moved forward with an apparent assumption in place of argument.

Another area where the book seemed oddly unreflective was when the author was expelled from the Dominican order. The order ordered him to leave the college he was running. He disobeyed that instruction and was then fired for failing to honour the vow of obedience which he made when he joined the order.

The author views it as being ordered to do something which went against his conscience (46%), so (in his opinion) of course he was free to disobey. Is that what obedience really means? Is that what it means to honour a vow which was freely made? Can married people (for example) drop their vows if something causes them to feel that they are ‘in conscience’ justified in doing so? This issue of obedience and the role of vows is a really important element of the author’s story, but the author just seems to pass over it, with once again a set of assumptions that he was justified, but no clear argument to justify his opinion.

And there are very real questions about whether the author was in fact correct in his assumptions. There is a well-known fallacy of ‘apparent indispensability,’ whereby people can feel that they personally are indispensable in certain situations. Yet companies and organisations then manage perfectly fine when the ‘apparently indispensable’ individuals do in fact leave. Was the author really so indispensable to his college that he was justified in breaking his vow of obedience to remain at the college? Or was the author potentially laboring under a misconception of the fallacy of indispensability? Once again this is a really important question of self-analysis, but key questions are ignored.

Overall, I was disappointed with the book. It began in an interesting way, but the author didn’t probe himself on the difficult questions which his actions raised. And the last half of the book seemed to lose narrative force, with long expressions of opinion which seemed at times repetitive and rambling.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE DEVELOPER OF "CREATION SPIRITUALITY" TELLS HIS STORY

Matthew Fox (born 1940) is a theologian and bestselling advocate of "Creation Spirituality." He became a Catholic priest of the Dominican order, but was removed in 1992, and has subsequently become an Episcopalian priest. He has written many other books, including 'Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.'

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1996 book, "over these fifty-five years that constitute my story, some telling events have occurred culturally, religiously, perhaps even spiritually. I write this book as a witness to those events... the test I have survived may assist others today who find themselves either passing from religion to spirituality back into religion... I was asked to write an 'intellectual autobiography.' While my life and my passion have surely been about ideas... I prefer the term 'cultural autobiography.' To me this means that all ideas are culturally based and that in writing my story, I am contextualizing it in the larger story of our cultural coming of age." (Pg. 1-3)

He says, "I was high a lot of the time. The liturgy, the chanting of the office, friendships, the outdoors, studying theology, meditation---the silence and beauty of things and ideas all got me high. As my mystical experiences continued, I went looking among the priest-theologians at the priory for a spiritual director who could help me understand them. None of them could help me." (Pg. 39) He did ultimately hear a course by Louis Cognet, who said that "God becomes engaged by CREATION---not just by the incarnation. This would prove a dominant theme in my development of a creation spirituality." (Pg. 67)

He explains, "Calling my first few books after dreams and nursery rhymes ... kept the inquisitorial minds off my trail for many years. Wouldn't the Vatican thought police look silly raiding a bookstore for the dangers inherent in a book called On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style? At least for a while, it gave me some latitude in which to roam in search of a viable spirituality." (Pg. 94)

He admits, "A dark side to being in California is the accusation of being 'New Age' or 'flaky.' I have yet to hear that accusation from anyone who has read my books or studied the tradition. And creation spirituality IS a tradition... There is a kind of intellectual laziness in the American media that wants to ascribe all mysticism to being New Age..." (Pg. 157)

As the Church hierarchy began troubling him, he confides, "I have to say that certain Catholic liberal theologians let me down and contributed to my marginalization." (Pg. 216) Later, he adds, "People ask, 'But shouldn't we stay in the church and fight?' It seems to me that SOME will have such a vocation---and it is an honorable one. I myself stayed and fought for over ten years... So I did not leave, and I did fight. But I was expelled from the bus... Let 10 percent stay and fight the church authorities... But let the other 90 percent, the rest of us, get on with the task of tomorrow and let go of the sins of yesteryear." (Pg. 243) He concludes, "When I was dismissed by the Vatican, the first thing I did was to sit down and meditate. In my meditation it came to me that the Vatican had made me a postdenominational priest in a postdenominational era." (Pg. 246)

Matthew Fox's output has slowed down a bit in recent years (although he has written 'The Pope's War: Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved,' 'A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity,' etc.), but it remains of seminal interest to anyone interested in emerging trends of modern spirituality.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was engaging, insightful, thought-provoking, and encouraging in how it presents Matthew Fox's journey of faith and his call to draw a creation-based spirituality back into religious traditions that have ignored it and marginalized other rich sources of wisdom. I appreciated the depth of his character in describing his Roman Catholic heritage, his robust intellectual and spiritual formation as a Dominican, and his conscientious and well-integrated struggle against oppressive mindsets and measures from Vatican authorities. I particularly appreciated his enduring sense of positivity, optimism, and rootedness in healthy community throughout his successes and his struggles. There's much to consider in this book, and I had to keep reminding myself that it was written 25 years ago– which makes me lament how much time may have been lost in applying his vision, but also how much has happened during that time to advance some of what he'd been advocating for decades. The notion of a "post-denominational priest" is deeply intriguing, and resonates with my sense of a need to reintegrate a healthy, expansive, unitive spirituality into movements for social and environmental healing and restoration.

[Cyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the revised and updated version published in 2015. I started reading it that year, and only finished it now because my wife wants to read something by Fox. I was still trying to be a religious person four years ago. . . and now I feel hardly any religious impulse, if any at all. I meditate--that's it. I find more inspiration in people who stand up for themselves and others against hatred, brutality, oppression, destruction. Fox would argue that in doing so I am practicing Creation Spirituality. Maybe.

[Martha Elias Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It starts a bit slow but along the way I began to really appreciate Fox’s invitation to engage in creation spirituality. And his story of being censured by the Catholic Church was all too familiar. A great deal of insight packed into this book. Still very relevant over 30 years later.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read

Speaks of the full life of Matthew Fox. The book is inspiring and worth reading. It is quite long. It will encourage you to read more of his books.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absorbing memoir of a fiercely intelligent, deeply humble modern theologian.