CREATION SPIRITUALITY

by Matthew Fox

From Matthew Fox, the popular and controversial author of The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, a prophetic manifesto for the preservation of the planet. For those new to the works of Matthew Fox, and for those eager to learn his thoughts after his Vatican-ordered public silence, comes this introduction to creation spirituality--Fox's framework for a far-reaching spirituality of the Americas. Passionate and provocative, Fox uncovers the ancient tradition of a creation-centered spirituality that melds Christian mysticism with the contemporary struggle for social justice, feminism, and environmentalism. Basic to Fox's notion of creation spirituality is the gift of awe--a mystical response to creation and the first step toward transformation. Awe prompts indignation at the exploitation and destruction of the earth's people and resources. Awe leads to action. Showing how we can learn from each other, Fox's spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in both North and South America. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just creator.

Genres: Spirituality, Religion, Christianity, Ecology, Theology, Nonfiction, Faith

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 1991

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

[Lauren Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping, though not expecting, something more practical, but I found this theoretical read rewarding. I am quite drawn to the concept of Creation Spirituality as I am to Celtic Christianity, and this exploration helped validate the path I feel I am walking, as I become increasingly drawn to work for justice for animals. If you feel that deepening spirituality would naturally incline a person to activism, Fox would agree with you. But read more on it anyway, to gain some solid insight into the historical aspect of the injustice and imbalances we try to correct in our day.

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MY "HIGHLIGHTS"

We can face down fear through/with solidarity.

Awe leads to liberation; nonaction to action.

Recognition of enslavement is followed by paths of action that include creativity and acts of passion and compassion, celebration, and justice-making.

No either/or: In the struggle for justice, justice toward the rainforest cannot wait until justice among humans is accomplished We are too interdependent for that.

Christianity is Trinitarian; those who think otherwise (i.e. it's all about Jesus) are heretical.
Creator, Liberator, Sanctifier ... to focus on liberation only is anthropocentric.

Interconnectedness/ context of First vs Third World liberation issues. Example: drugs: First World pathos desires drugs as important to dismantle -- if not more so -- than Third World's supply of it.
USA = 2% world population uses 60% of world's illicit substances.

Thinking about God is no substitute for tasting God. Talking about God is no substitute for giving people ways to experience God.

There is nothing so natural to the human heart than the desire to give thanks. With wonder & awe renewed, the yearning for occasions to praise & give thanks will flow along with opportunities for effective compassion. When the Spirit is allowed to flow, our religious traditions are reanimated!

Poverty of the soul: in the First World, apathy is usually actually a cover-up for despair, so counter this by reminding people of their capacity to create. If this poverty goes unabated, it gets passed on to the next generation through violence and institutional structures that condone violence.

Any liberation movement must possess the power to awaken moral indignation among its citizens for within that indignation lies the power to liberate!

Creation spirituality strikes at the very jugular of the pathology of addiction. Instead of deadening our internal processes, it awakens them! Rather than deny anger, pain, & depression, it names it as Via Negativa, a process every mystic must imbibe.

In contrast to codependence, CS teaches interdependence, emphasizing Original Blessing, not Sin. We need to live life fully; asceticism can be a distraction from this project, actually. Learn to let go rather than control, which causes stress and depression. Also a characteristic of addiction is perfectionism, upheld by sin-based shaming religions. With Via Creativa we accept, even celebrate mistakes, for from them come diversity and new possibilities! Perfectionism is objective, but excellence, subjective, is doing the best we can, and healthy.

Wonder, creativity, and empowerment counter boredom and passivity.

All fundamentalism is based in fear -- of science, universe, self, etc -- but if Jesus redeemed us from anything it is from fear.
No religion based on fear can lay claim to following Jesus.

Prayer is about making the heart strong so that fear / evil cannot penetrate.
This idea is not unique to CS but is emphasized by native peoples all around.

Fear of the Lord just means awe of being in the universe.

Eckhart: "Every creature is a word of God and a book about God."

CS can help men to reawaken their mystical consciousness, to let go of the wounded boy who was once a mystic playing in the universe....

Just as the slave master is the victim of slavery, so the overdeveloped world is a victim of its own worldview.

Because it is ecumenical and yet names the mystical journey that is all of ours, because it is not elitist but is found in ordinary persons' deepest experiences of joy and sorrow, creativity and compassion, creation spirituality can be utilized as an umbrella kind of movement to get artists and scientists, psychologists and street people, justice and ecological activists, native and black and white peoples, artists and mystics, together to form a larger constituency. Spirituality can ground us all!

Emerging base community groups in the First World include hospice, AA, and support groups.

Although there is less likelihood that moral boldness will result in death these days, there are other "deaths" we risk when choosing to stand for justice: loss of reputation or job, misunderstanding, rumors, envy, projection, imprisonment, ecclesiastical attack.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

FOX'S FIRST BOOK WRITTEN AFTER HIS 1988-1989 "SILENCING”

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 wrote in the Preface to this 1991 book, "For some time now people have been asking me for an essay that would both outline the basics of creation spirituality for beginners and challenge seasoned practitioners. During my recent sabbatical, I put some effort into such an essay, and the result is this short book. While on sabbatical I traveled ... and if I was awakened to anything during those trips, it is this: The issues that creation spirituality addresses have worldwide significance."

He suggests that after the Galileo affair in 1616, science and religion parted ways. "Today, however, science is once again interested in the sacred, and creation spirituality provides a bridge between the two." (Pg. 15) He endorses panentheism ("God is in all things and all things are in God"), which reminds us that "we are all beautiful, all interdependent, all necessary in a single web of life." (Pg. 104-105)

He suggests that "spirituality is praxis... Thinking about God is no substitute for tasting God, and talking about God is no substitute for giving people ways of experiencing God." (Pg. 74)

He summarizes, "creation spirituality can be understood as a liberation theology for 'First World' peoples... the movement to liberate the overdeveloped peoples of the northern hemisphere indeed parallels liberation theology in the south. The north... remains severely underdeveloped in our imagination and spirits and indignation. We need to get on with the task of liberating ourselves." (Pg. 87)

This book is nevertheless a very accessible introduction to Fox's thinking.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published 30 years ago, this book is as relevant today as then, and highlights the desperate need for society, specifically first world countries, two reassess its power and position for the survival of our world.

It is thought-provoking, provocative, and sadly, illustrates how poorly we have faced the challenges of our communications, issues of social justice, and the very health of our planet that is quickly being destroyed.

[Rodeweeks · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of an introduction to Creation Spirituality, I would have appreciated practical guidelines to go with it. That being said, I was intrigued by Fox's ideas on mysticism and especially about the non-ascetic base of his mysticism. The Catholic Church did not appreciate his ideas though, and, although Fox was still Catholic with the writing of this book, he is Episcopalian today.

[Sarah Bollinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Matthew Fox's approach to theology. This book was brilliant. I enjoyed Original Blessing more than this piece, as this book felt a bit too brief at times, but the ideas are so compelling nonetheless.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed other books by Fox, but this one wasn't as stimulating as the others. Frankly I'm sort of glad to be finished so I can read something else. I kept hoping for more, but this wasn't to be found.

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Haughty writing that is difficult to follow. Put it down halfway through as it got increasingly editorial on politics.

[Marco Castellani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breve ma luminoso. Il cosmo sempre più in connessione con la vera spiritualità umana.
La cosmologia è (diventata? Ritornata?) una scienza spirituale.
Grazie al cielo.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Creation, then, at its core, is about relation. It is the spiraling, dancing, crouching, springing, leaping, surprising act of relatedness, of communing, of responding, of letting go, of being.” (9) In this I’m in complete agreement. Reminding oneself that we are all part of an overall creation invokes imagery of the family. The nature of the family invokes awe and reverence.

Fox presents an interesting framework, guided by mystics and modern psychology. The four paths of creation spirituality are the Via Positiva (“Thou Shalt Fall in Love at Least Three Times a Day”), the Via Negativa (“Thou Shalt Dare the Dark”), the Via Creativa (“Do Not Be Reluctant to Give Birth”), and the Via Transformativa (“Be You Compassionate As Your Creator in Heaven Is Compassionate”). (21)

Fox loses me toward the middle of the book. He draws on the liberation theology movement, and blames the problems of genocide and civil war in Central and South America on the wealth and greed of the first world. To be sure, our political history of supporting terrible leaders is not exemplary, and many cascading events were precipitated in part by American foreign policy. However, Fox paints and us and them portrait that is overly simplistic, in my opinion. Liberation theology itself has a checkered past, as it has been used and subverted by political leaders who ended up wielding power against the very people they promised to liberate. These problems are more complex than Fox presents. In one thing we agree, it is our very humanity that demands that we help each other, and treat each other with love. We do not need to corrupt that sentiment with politics. Fox diverts himself from the wonderful first section of the book, and finds himself talking about upward distribution of wealth in the 80’s. He demands social justice. He demands redistribution. The issue with this, of course, is how to do such things fairly. Who judges? How do we make sure the judges act in accordance with the law? How do we make sure the law is morally correct? How do we make sure the people who answer these questions don’t become corrupt themselves? The world doesn’t have a good track record of answering all of those questions in a way that satisfies the end goal of social justice.

Fox criticizes modern philosophy and again mixes this philosophy with the wealthy. Referring to Descartes, he declares the fundamental assumption of “I think, therefore I am” is an egocentric and false model when compared with creation spirituality. I agree. He states that the “First world” has been driven by this philosophy, and that is at the end the reason the first world has become disconnected from the earth, and disconnected from each other. Hmmm. It moves in that direction beyond this statement further and further.

Promising start, hyperpoliticized finish.

See my other reviews here!

[Phila Hoopes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The First World is commonly understood as “free”…if this is so, however, why do we have such horrifically high rates of isolation, mental illness, addiction, violent crime? And why, in “Third World” countries considered “not free,” where material deprivation, struggle and suffering are commonplace, is there paradoxically a higher level of spiritual and psychological resiliency, social connectedness, even joy? In this 1991 volume, written during the sabbatical year of his silencing by the Vatican, Matthew Fox explores these questions in the context of creation-based spirituality. Sadly, his conclusions are, if anything, more timely and important nearly 20 years later.

He presents the “First” and “Third” Worlds as opposite sides of the same coin: while the Third World faces relentless material poverty (“impoverishment of the body”), the First is equally enslaved by spiritual poverty (“impoverishment of the soul”). If those of us in materially fortunate nations are to recognize the need to liberate those who are suffering in outward scarcity and squalor, it is necessary for to recognize our own need for inner liberation. For both, the paths of creation-based spirituality offer hope.

[Kevin Ressler]

This was quite an interesting perspective on Christianity. There were aspects that were enjoyable and I really resonate with the need for a liberation theology for the materially wealthier world. It challenged me to think where my place is in the world.

That said, I found that Fox often just goes a bit far, reaches a bit, and I wonder if this is to overcompensate in order to leave the reader somewhere towards a middle that would be more acceptable to Fox than mere intrigue without change.

In the end, I must say my classmate Nick Peterson said it best when, upon completing the reading, he said "I really like it as a Philosophy but I am unsure about it as a Theology."

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had some difficulty getting into this book at first, but then as I progressed into the second part and began to understand both the social and academic context for his definitions of creation spirituality I began to appreciate the book more. Overall, I ended up enjoying this introduction to Matthew Fox's work and look forward to getting my hands on some of his more rigorous books in the future.

On a side note, I was especially impressed with Matthew Fox after hearing his interview on Democracy Now about the scandals in the vatican and the stepping down of Ratzinger. He has some really fascinating and passionate points to be made.

[J.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was somewhat repetitive, I was quite on board with much of what he had to say. Although pockets of his thought/theology I have taken on myself, I have never seen such a cohesive effort in putting together a theology that is so intertwined with the earth. I love his perspective and loved in the introduction where he mentions that if he is going to aid in the destruction of so many trees by writing this book, he really believes that what he has to say is important. I really appreciated him being mindful of that, as that is often overlooked.