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Summary: Creation Spirituality - A Primer
Review: For those looking for a spirituality that is positive and all embracing, vursus one which is exclusive and judgemental, this is the place to start. Matthew Fox introduces the reader to ideas and themes that are more fully developed in his book "Original Blessing". Original Blessing v. Original Sin is one such theme. Others are the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, art as meditation, liberation for First World peoples, and the return of true Trinitarian Christianity.Bottom line: Matthew Fox puts forward a Christianity that is a beautiful relection of Jesus the Christ and shows how such a Christianity can help to heal the world.
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Summary: Slide toward pantheism
Review: Fox draws on many sources such as Meister Eckhart and Hildegard of Bingen to try to craft a spirituality based on awe of Creation. What I fear however is that his slide towards pantheism denies some of the rich spiritual gifts of Christ and the Holy Spirit. For example it is Eckhart who says "God begets his Son in you whether you like it or not." (See for example the book "Meister Eckhart from Whom God Hid Nothing : Sermons, Writings, and Sayings", or Schurmann's analysis of Eckhart in "Wandering Joy"). Subsequent to this book, Fox was expelled from the Dominican order in 1993. At times Fox also seems to blame all that is ecologically corrupt on traditional Christianity, for example "Pantheism is not only democratic, it is also ecological, Theism, on the other hand, reinforces anthropocentrisms ". Additionally he makes a broad claim that "Creation Spirituality" encompasses such broad divergent groups as "AA", Support groups, and Protestant parishes. Though I agree with Fox's quest for a deeper ecumenism, he seems to pick what he wants out of the Christian tradition. I still find ample mining in a more traditional, though slightly broadened views of the Holy Trinity, rather than his Cosmology, Liberation, and Wisdom. Although I don't always agree with Fox, he does offer an injection of joy and awe.
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Summary: A Fresh Outlook
Review: Matthew Fox has "rediscovered" mystical Christianity, which celebrates the "Christ" present in all of creation. Such mysticism was a significant movement within Christianity during the Middle Ages, but it was effectively silenced by the centralized Church and then ignored when enlightenment ideologies favored much more reductionistic, as opposed to mysticism's more holistic, thought. Fox astutely notes that the same worldview expressed by mystical Christians has also been appreciated by Jewish and Muslim mystics, and by aboriginal peoples. He is particularly drawn to Native American traditions. Fox suggests, I think correctly, that spiritualities that focus on personal salvation with little regard for the rest of Creation tend to be spiritually unfulfilling for the undividual and destructive for the world.
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