Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (b. 1940) is an internationally acclaimed theologian
who was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He holds a
doctorate, summa cum laude, in the history and theology of
spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris.
Seeking to establish a new pedagogy for learning spirituality that
was grounded in an effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical
traditions in such figures as Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart
and the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas, as well as interacting with
contemporary scientists who are also mystics, Fox founded the
Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality.
ICCS operated for seven years at Mundelein College in Chicago, and
then for another twelve years at Holy Names College in Oakland,
where his curriculum and teachings then became a chief target of
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Ratzinger, John Paul II’s newly
appointed chief Inquisitor and head of the Congregation of Doctrine
and Faith (called the Office of the Holy Inquisition until 1965),
spent 12 years maneuvering to shut the program down. Eventually, in
a series of moves widely covered by the world media, Ratzinger
silenced Fox for one year in 1988 and ultimately forced him to step
down as director ofICCS. Three years later he expelled Fox from the
Order, resulting in the termination of the program at Holy Names
College.
Fox was then welcomed into the Anglican communion by Bishop William
Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, where he has
been a priest since 1993. Rather than disband his amazing and
ecumenical faculty, Fox started his own University called the
University of Creation Spirituality where it thrived until 2007.
Fox has taught at Stanford University, Vancouver School of
Theology, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, California
Institute of Integral Studies among other places. He is currently
visiting scholar with the Academy for the Love of Learning
headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For two years he has run a
very successful educational pilot project for inner city teenagers
in Oakland, California, called “YELLAWE” which is succeeding in
reaching students who are most apt to drop out of school.
He is author of 28 books which have sold more than 1.5 million
copies in 42 languages. His bestselling works in the U.S. include:
Original Blessing (350,000 copies sold); A Spirituality Named
Compassion (150,000 sold); The Coming of the Cosmic Christ 100,000+
sold) and Prayer: A Radical Response to Life (formerly, “On
Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear—160,000 copies sold). His books
have received numerous awards and he is recipient of the Peace
Abbey Courage of Conscience Award of which other recipients have
included the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks and Maya
Angelou. He is also a recipient of the Ghandi-King-Ikeda Award from
Morehouse College International Chapel that is awarded for
dedication to peace, unity, non-violence and justice. He has led a
renewal of liturgical forms with “The Cosmic Mass” that mixes
dance, techno and live music, dj, vj, rap and contemporary art
forms with the western liturgical tradition. Many people have been
trained in celebrating these post-modern forms of worship. Canadian
television filmed the Mass and ran it on prime time and 800,000
persons saw the presentation. Brazilian television also ran a
segment on the Mass.
His media exposure includes the following: New York Times, Los
Angeles Times,Rolling Stone, People Magazine, Yoga Journal, San
Francisco Chronicle,Oakland Tribune, Capitol Times, New Age
Journal, Utne Reader,Spirituality and Health, Tikkun, Science of
Mind, San Jose Mercury News,Chicago Tribune, Toronto Star, San
Francisco Weekly, East Bay Times,Washington Post, National Catholic
Reporter, Resurgence, The Tablet, The Independent (London), The
Guardian, YES! Magazine,Caduceus Journal, The Advocate, the Today
Show, BBC, Canadian television, Brazilian television. German
Television covered his challenge to the Papacy of Benedict XVI in
his nailing of 95 new theses for reformation on the Wittenburg door
in the spring of 2005. He was part of the acclaimed series, “Saving
Jesus,” produced by livingthequestions.com.
About Matthew Fox
“Traditionally, when big government in the church tries to silence
a good soul, it indicates that that soul is often far ahead of the
times. Matthew Fox is such a person. He writes simply, powerfully
about his life as a visionary. He continues now, as before, to give
out the 21st century keys to the kingdom.”
--Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Women Who Run with the Wolves
“Matthew Fox might well be the most creative, the most
comprehensive, surely the most challenging religious-spiritual
teacher in America. He has the scholarship, the imagination, the
courage, the writing skill to fulfill this role at a time when the
more official Christian theological traditions are having
difficulty in establishing any vital contact with either the
spiritual possibilities of the present or with their own most
creative spiritual traditions of the past….He has, it seems,
created a new mythic context for leading us out of our contemporary
religious and spiritual confusion into a new clarity of mind and
peace of soul, by affirming rather than abandoning any of our
traditional beliefs.”
--Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work, The Dream of the Earth
andThe Universe Story
""A visionary ... who has revitalized the long-buried mystical and life-affirming impulses in the Christian tradition."
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