First, I want to acknowledge the loss of Pope Francis who died yesterday. He was a champion for the Earth: his first encyclical, Laudato Si, was dedicated to that cause, as was his surprise name since no pope had ever before chosen the name of Francis. More another time on his other achievements and limits as pope.
In yesterday’s DM, I promised a second announcement. It is this and it seems fitting to announce it on Earth Day.
I very much look forward to my forthcoming 24-week course on “Jesus and the Christ Consciousness” with Shift Network. One third of it will be on re-examining who Jesus is and what he taught, and two-thirds will be drawing on the great mystics-prophets or “torch-bearers” that tried to live and teach his teachings over the centuries.
Our generation has been blessed with many important and inspiring movements that have contributed substantially to a fresh understanding of Jesus and his teachings. Movements such as these: The Aramaic Jesus; the Jesus Seminar; the women’s movement; the civil rights movement and Black theology; Creation Spirituality; the new cosmology and cosmogenesis; the recovery of the Celtic Christ; the Jewish recovery of Jesus as a first-century rabbi; deep ecumenism; LGBQ+ movement; and more. And also the colonialist critique of Christianity and more.
Among the mystic-prophets or “torch-bearers” we consider will be the following: Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich, Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, Father Bede Griffith, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton, Mary Oliver, Dorothy Soelle, and the archetype of the Black Madonna.
Included in the 24-week class will be several thinkers and activists I admire today. Among them are Mirabai Starr, Andrew Harvey, Neil Douglas Klotz, John Philip Newell, Bruce Chilton, Rabbi David Zaslow, and Christina Cleveland. Gianluigi Gugliermetto (who begins tomorrow to write the coming month’s DMs) will lead a process class where students interact among themselves.
So our course will include about 34 classes all told, of which I teach 24 and each of these esteemed teachers teach a class or more as well.
I believe we are on the cusp of a Christianity or Christ Path 2.0. I am hoping that this course will contribute positively to that newer and truer basis for a deeper understanding of Jesus the mystic and prophet calling our species to be the same.
There is synchronicity in announcing this event on Earth Day 2025. Creation Spirituality after all is, by its name alone, about the sacredness of creation and Earth. It urges us to honor the sacredness of our Mother Earth and in doing so links up with other religions, especially the wisdom of indigenous traditions. Deep Ecumenism begins with our gratitude for creation.
On this Earth Day, 2025, let us celebrate our Holy Mother Earth, our Sacred Earth, which upholds and make possible our sacred existence.
If we recognized the Earth as holy and sacred and indispensable, would we treat her better? Would she be more on our minds? And on our politicians’ minds? I would hope so. It’s sort of hard imagining life without her, isn’t it?
Creation Spirituality begins with the Via Positiva and the truth of original blessing. As Rabbi Heschel teaches: The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God.*
That humans are capable of acting god-like is a wonder in itself—as is our capacity to learn the 13.8 billion years of our universe. Our knowing and naming cosmogenesis and what evolution has accomplished in placing our species on earth is itself a wonder, isn’t it?
But, as we all know, humans have choices, and our decisions whether or not to love self, others and the Earth will decide the fate of the Earth as we know her. Will the common good prevail? Surely Earth is the ultimate commons that we share and an ultimate common good.
Bringing coal back, shouting “Drill, baby, drill,” stripping the EPA of its powers and firing countless scientists on its staff is not treating Earth as sacred (see my Monday video).
Surely all species on Earth have their own rights and beauty and glory that delight God and humans alike.
A Blessed and Active Earth Day to all! And I hope to meet many of you in my course on the Jesus Consciousness for Today and Tomorrow.
*Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, p. 378.
See Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: Building a Church with Justice & Compassion.
See Matthew Fox, “Creation—All Our Relations,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, pp. 26-49.
And Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jennifer Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergnerational Vision of Love and Action.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
Banner Image: Our sacred Earth. Image from Earthday.org, used with permission.
Queries for Contemplation
What are your thoughts and prayers and concerns on this Earth Day, 2025? And on the passing of Pope Francis?
Recommended Reading
Matthew Fox challenges the new Pope to live up to the promise of his namesake St. Francis and reshape a church that has been mired in corruption and bereft of authentic spirituality and rigorous theological debate. Former Dominican priest Matthew Fox presents a series of heartfelt letters to his brother in Christ about the great challenges facing the church today, drawing from the deep spiritual and theological sources that have been suppressed since Vatican II, and implores him to restore the sensus fidelium (the sense of the faithful) and reshape a church with justice and compassion.
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. 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.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an Introduction by Charles Burack
To encapsulate the life and work of Matthew Fox would be a daunting task for any save his colleague Dr. Charles Burack, who had the full cooperation of his subject. Fox has devoted 50 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His more than 40 books, translated into 78 languages, are inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and have awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Essential Writings begins by exploring the influences on Fox’s life and spirituality, then presents selections from all Fox’s major works in 10 sections.
“The critical insights, the creative connections, the centrality of Matthew Fox’s writings and teaching are second to none for the radical renewal of Christianity.” ~~ Richard Rohr, OFM.
