Matthew Fox (priest)

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Matthew Fox (born 1940) is a controversial American priest and theologian, and the leading exponent of Creation Spirituality.

Born Timothy James, Fox was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1940. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1967. He received Masters Degrees in both philosophy and theology from Aquinas Institute of Theology and later earned a Ph.D. in spirituality, summa cum laude, from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Due to his controversial teachings, he was censured by the Vatican in 1989 and forbidden to teach, and later dismissed from the Dominican order. He was later received as an Episcopal priest by Bishop William Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of California.

Fox has become an important figure in Creation Spirituality, and his books, Original Blessing and The Coming of the Cosmic Christ were pivotal in the defining of that movement. One of his more recent books, Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest, describes his life growing up as a Dominican priest and his struggle with the Vatican as he wrote about his experiences and understanding of early Christianity. He has also authored 22 other books on various spiritual teachings.

Furthermore, his teaching and founding of the Wisdom University allowed many people to learn new means of worship. This work was largely ecumenical and allowed the connecting of practices like Christian (Catholic) Mass to Native American practices like sweat lodges and even pagan practices like circle dances such as the ones taught by Starhawk. Fox promotes the Techno-Cosmic Mass.

In Spring 2005, while preparing for a presentation in Germany, Fox was moved to prepare 95 Theses of his own which he had translated into German. On the weekend of Pentecost, arrangements were made for him to nail these to the door of Wittenberg church (the location where Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses in the 16th century, the act which is cited as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation).

In his theses, Fox calls for a new reformation in Western Christianity. In his supporting book A New Reformation, Fox argues that two Christianities already exist, and it is time for a New Reformation to acknowledge that fact and move the Western spiritual tradition into new directions.

[edit] Books

  • Meditations with Meister Eckhart, Bear & Company 1983, ISBN 0-939680-04-1
  • Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, (1983), Bear & Company revised ed. 1996, ISBN 1-879181-27-4
  • Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Presented in Four Paths, Twenty-Six Themes, and Two Questions, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam 2000, ISBN 1-58542-067-0
  • The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, HarperSanFrancisco 1988, ISBN 0-06-062915-0
  • Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth, HarperSanFrancisco 1991, ISBN 0-06-062917-7
  • The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time, HarperSanFrancisco reprint 1995, ISBN 0-06-063062-0
  • One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, Jeremy P. Tarcher 2000, hardcover: ISBN 1-58542-047-6 paperback: ISBN 1-58542-326-2
  • Passion for Creation: The Earth-honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, Inner Traditions 2000, ISBN 0-89281-801-8
  • Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet, Jeremy P. Tarcher 2002, hardcover: ISBN 1-58542-178-2, paperback: ISBN 1-58542-329-7

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Fox, Matthew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES James, Timothy (born)
SHORT DESCRIPTION priest and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Madison, Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH none
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