On Eros & Justice – Part 2

In undergoing the deep challenge of our time to stand up on behalf of Mother Earth, we are exploring how to be a mystic or a lover of creation, what Biblical scholar Krister Stendahl called the “kingdom (queendom) of God” in the full meaning that the historical Jesus presented it.  “Every time you see the term basileia (kingdom of God) in the New Testament,” he counseled me years ago, “you have a right to translate it as creation.” 

All this we are exploring in our Daily Meditations, beginning on Mother’s Day with the Original Blessings of Mother Earth and the gift of the return of the Divine Feminine; the awakening to the Sacred Masculine; and the role of Art as Meditation as the “way of the prophets.” 

Recently, in naming the Natural and Tactical Ecstasies we explored what awakens our passion, our gratitude, our sense of reverence and respect for the Sacred.  The via positiva comes to life both in our oneing or ecstatic experiences within nature and in our wise use of tactical ecstasies that also teach ecstasy to us. 

Upcoming essays will treat the theme of the sacredness of our sexuality, our second chakras.  Eros and justice are in no way separated—not only because abusive sex can create a rupture in human relationships—consider the “Me-Too” movement and the prolonged and profound pain that comes about through rape or sexual abuse, or from the abuse of children. 

But Eros and justice are also related because Eros is our capacity for passion for life—the Bible calls it wisdom itself.  “This is wisdom—to love life.”  (Book of Wisdom).  Poet Audre Lorde speaks of how she is erotic making a table, writing a poem, baking bread, or making love since Eros is the passion we bring to living.

Eros then is also the passion we bring to justice making, to healing, to reconciliation, to creating structures that guarantee justice, balance, fairness and healing.  In my Original Blessing book I talked about “Erotic Justice” in this way:

“Patriarchal philosophies have left Eros out of justice. We need an erotic justice. A justice that moves peoples. Justice moves us first because injustice moves us. An erotic justice means first of all getting in touch with our feelings about injustice.”

We must redeem the rich word “Eros” taking it back from the pornographers.  We will not have the energy for our prophetic roles until we are imbued with Eros once again. 

See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, 286-292.
Banner Image: “Untitled” Photo by Jasmine Wallace Carter from Pexels

Queries for Contemplation

Do you see Eros as an important element in the wisdom of our species?  Are we there yet as a species, are you there yet as an individual, is your community there yet?

If nature is the “kingdom/queendom of God,” how are we doing to bring about the “kingdom”?  What are we doing to bring this about at this critical time in our history?

Recommended Reading

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

In this book 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). Here Fox lays out the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.

Learn More