Matthew Fox (1940-) is a controversial American priest and theologian, and the leading exponent of Creation Spirituality. Roman Catholic priest LCDR Allen R. Kuss (USN) aboard USS Enterprise A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... Theology is reasoned discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, word or reason). It can also refer to the study of other religious topics. ... Creation Spirituality is a set of beliefs about God and humanity promoted by the theologian and Episcopal priest Matthew Fox. ...

Life

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 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. The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... The Philosopher (detail), by Rembrandt Philosophy is a study that includes diverse subfields such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics. ... Theology is reasoned discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, word or reason). It can also refer to the study of other religious topics. ... The Aquinas Institute is a coed Roman Catholic secondary school located in Rochester, New York. ... Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph. ... Spirituality is, in a narrow sense, a concern with matters of the spirit. ... Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... Institut Catholique de Paris or the Catholic Institute of Paris is a university (in France, the term university can only be used for publicly-owned institutions of higher learning - prior to 1880, the institute was known as the University of Paris) devoted to the study of all aspects of Catholicism. ... Look up Controversy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For other uses, see Controversy (disambiguation). ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare Saint Dominic de Guzman saw the need for a new type of organization to address the needs of his time, one that would bring the dedication and systematic education of the older monastic orders to bear on the religious problems of the burgeoning population of cities, but...

Fox has become an important figure in Creation Spirituality, and his book The Reinvention of Work was 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. Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, known by Christians as Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ...

Furthermore, his teaching and founding of the University of Creation Spirituality 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. Worship usually refers to specific acts of religious praise, honour, or devotion, typically directed to a supernatural being such as a god or goddess. ... The word ecumenical comes from a Greek word that means pertaining to the whole world. ... Mass is the term used of the celebration of the Eucharist in the various liturgical rites of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, and in some Lutheran regions which are largely High Church: the main Lutheran service is still known as the... A Hupa man, 1923 The term indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European explorers in the 15th century, as well as many present-day ethnic groups who identify themselves with those historical peoples. ... Nez Percé sweat-lodge The sweat lodge is a ceremonial sauna used by North American First Nations or Native American peoples. ... Paganism (from Latin paganus) and Heathenry are catch-all terms which have come to connote a broad set of spiritual/religious beliefs and practices of a natural religion, as opposed to the Abrahamic religions. ... Circle dance, is the most common name for a style of dance usually done in a circle without partners to musical accompaniment. ... Starhawk (born Miriam Simos in St. ... A Cosmic mass is an event that attempts to combine the religious ritual of the Roman Catholic mass with the ecstatic energy of Techno music and rave parties. ...

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). The 95 Theses. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Statue of Martin Luther in the main square Wittenberg, officially [Die] Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a town in Germany, in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, at 12° 59 E, 51° 51 N, on the Elbe river. ... Luther at age 46 (Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529) The Luther seal Martin Luther (November 10, 1483–February 18, 1546) was a German theologian, an Augustinian monk, and an ecclesiastical reformer whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines and culture of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which emerged in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe. ...

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.

Books

• Meditations with Meister Eckhart, Bear & Company 1983, ISBN 0939680041
• Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, (1983), Bear & Company revised ed. 1996, ISBN 1879181274
• Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Presented in Four Paths, Twenty-Six Themes, and Two Questions, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam 2000, ISBN 1585420670
• The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, HarperSanFrancisco 1988, ISBN 0060629150
• Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth, HarperSanFrancisco 1991, ISBN 0060629177
• The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time, HarperSanFrancisco reprint 1995, ISBN 0060630620
• One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, Jeremy P. Tarcher 2000, hardcover: ISBN 1585420476 paperback: ISBN 1585423262
• Passion for Creation: The Earth-honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, Inner Traditions 2000, ISBN 0892818018
• Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet, Jeremy P. Tarcher 2002, hardcover: ISBN 1585421782, paperback: ISBN 1585423297

External links

• Matthew Fox's Friends of Creation Spirituality Site.
• University of Creation Spirituality
• Fox biography from the University of Creation Spirituality.
• Matthew Fox MP3 audio - from Shift in Action, sponsored by Institute of Noetic Sciences