The idea of the “Cosmic Christ” is the primary Christian archetype for mysticism and a renewal of the sacredness of creation.
I once heard a well-educated Protestant minister say she had never heard the term “Cosmic Christ” in all of her theological training. It sounds new to some because of the vast anthropocentrism of the modern era that turned its back on nature except what humans can profit from nature.
It only sounds new because Christianity preferred the “introspective conscience of the West” (Krister Stendahl’s language) to the bigger mysteries of the universe and our place in it.
As we saw yesterday, the earliest writings like St. Paul and the Gospel of Thomas (and the other Gospels as well), are steeped in the Cosmic Christ or wave theory of the divine Light having visited us, become incarnate and truly present among us. And continues to be present among us.
It also sounds new because modern consciousness “deposed” the Cosmic Christ, as Greek Orthodox theologian Jaroslav Pelikan put it. The modern consciousness substituted the human for the cosmos. “I think therefore I am.” (Descartes) “We shall torture Mother Earth for her secrets.” (Francis Bacon) All this adds up to what Pope Francis has rightly called “species narcissism.”
And to the peril we and Earth find ourselves in today.
It also adds up to a desacralized and desecrated Earth, one that exists for human exploitation and is devoid of awe, enchantment, joy, balance, harmony, justice. And is thereby unsustainable as long as humans play Masters of the universe having forgotten what Aquinas taught, that “humans are not the most excellent thing in the universe– the universe is.”
Religion in the modern era exiled mysticism and awe and with it reverence and gratitude substituting a category called “ascetic theology” in 1635. This in the very century that began with torturing and burning Giordano Bruno at the stake for declaring that Copernicus had something to teach believers.
Religion chose to divorce from science and therefore from the cosmos. Religion essentially decided it did not need nature or those who study nature, scientists. It held all the questions and answers in its Bible book and turned its back on the holy book of nature.
It took religion and the Vatican 500 years to come around to officially accepting Galileo’s insights and remove the shadow it laid over Galileo.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 75-77, 108.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: “Icon of Christ of Latomos, mosaic of Theophany.” Spontaneously appeared in the monastery of Latomos, Thessaloniki, Greece, third century C.E. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
What is your experience of the ignoring of the Cosmic Christ in Western religion? And of the recovering of the Cosmic Christ in religion?
Recommended Reading
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
7 thoughts on “On the Cosmic Christ in Early Christianity, part ii”
Matthew, Today you begin by saying: “The idea of the ‘Cosmic Christ’ is the primary Christian archetype for mysticism and a renewal of the sacredness of creation.” And you say that some think it sounds “New.” And yet as we saw yesterday, “the earliest writings like St. Paul and the Gospel of Thomas (and the other Gospels as well), are steeped in the Cosmic Christ.” Then you say “it only sounds new because modern consciousness ‘deposed’ the Cosmic Christ, as Greek Orthodox theologian Jaroslav Pelikan put it. The modern consciousness substituted the human for the cosmos. Religion in the modern era exiled mysticism and awe, and around the same time began its battle with the newly emerging Enlightenment science–beginning with torturing and burning Giordano Bruno at the stake for declaring that Copernicus had something to teach believers. Then you close saying: “Religion chose to divorce from science and therefore from the cosmos. Religion essentially decided it did not need nature or those who study nature, scientists. It held all the questions and answers in its Bible book and turned its back on the holy book of nature.”–and besides the Bible I would add Tradition and the Magisterium… Meeting the Cosmic Christ back in 1988 changed everything for me in terms of how I looked at Christianity–it gave me hope that there was a place within the Christian faith where I could feel at home…
We might debate the meaning of Cosmic Christ, heaven and hell, but can we be confident and convinced that ‘the Truth’, the reality of existence, is fully capable of supporting itself, and stand on its own merits? Does ‘Truth’ require our support to exist, to make it any ‘more’ real than it already is? We think not, do we not? Selfishly though, we need the Truth to support ourselves. We need to be able to live in union and harmony with the Truth for a loving, peaceful and joyful existence, do we not?
So, it begs the question. If ‘the Truth’ does not require us to support its existence, does it require us to call out all of those who do not support its existence (the religious or otherwise) or is it capable of pointing that out to them on its own? Once we and our legacies are gone, what will ‘the Truth’ be capable of doing without those of us that either support or do not support it? The Truth carries on of course. In this lifetime, is it to our benefit to spend our time finding ways to experience and realize how the Truth is capable of transforming us into ‘the Holy’ that it is? Or should we spend our time defending the Truth, one in which we have only partial understanding of, against all supposed detractors? Or does becoming ‘the Holy’ serve to accomplish all of that, which in turn is in harmony with ‘the Truth’. Our calling then, should it not, be to practice, and over time experience, ‘the Holy’. — BB
Bill, You ask today: “should we spend our time defending the Truth, one in which we have only partial understanding of, against all supposed detractors? Or does becoming ‘the Holy’ serve to accomplish all of that, which in turn is in harmony with ‘the Truth’.” My own view on this point is that the Truth does not need to be defended, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be discussed in our effort to find more clarity. And, “Yes” becoming “the Holy” does serve to accomplish the living of the Truth, if our practice is done with love and gracefulness…
I appreciated Mathew’s comment, of replacing the word Kingdom while reading the gospels, with the word Creation. I myself have been replacing this word, with Kin-Dom… Kin referring to all of creation, as all my relations… and Dom meaning partnering the psyche, with all my relations.
I just received a hard to find copy of Teilhard de Chardin’s book, “Hymn of the Universe”. This is one of the most poetic and beautiful piece of mystical writing I’ve ever come across… regarding much of what we have been discussing over the past week. I’ve read some of his other works… however this book touches my heart and soul so deeply. I highly recommend it! Truly Teilhard’s writings are a gift, in resurrecting the Cosmic Christ… dare I say, from the annals of religion.
Creation Spirituality and the long hidden wisdom of the mystics within the Christian tradition, that are now being released and made known, through people such as Mathew, Mirabia Starr, Andrew Harvey and others, has helped me to reconcile my roots within the Christian faith… which I braid together with Shamanic Spirituality. I’m grateful to all, whom have touched my heart, mind and soul in so many profound ways, that helps me to see the unfolding, evolving emergence of the Cosmic Christ within myself, others and the all and the everything of creation. Thank you!
Thanks Jeanette for your addition to the concept of kingdom as kin-dom.
So perfect! Thanks to Matthew and team for sharing some potential good
news regarding the conversation around instituting a ICC law against ecocide.
Matthew, your continued profound DM today about the Cosmic Christ is synchronistic with my own spiritual journey of deepening my understanding of the Cosmic Christ/Sophia~Christ as a Divine Flowing Love and Diverse Oneness in the Sacredness of the Eternal Present Moment within and among us in our co-Creation~Evolution in our Sacred Mother Nature/Earth and within our sacred multidimensional-multiverse Cosmos….
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Nothing in my experience growing up as a Baptist considered the Cosmic Christ. Yet here it is in Ephesians 1:3-14. Baptists are taught that sonship comes through the blood of the crucifixion and sometimes taught that only some were chosen to be redeemed. Yet nothing here, before or after the words “we have redemption through his blood,” appears to reference crucifixion. Paul seems to be talking here about a bloodline. These phrases appear instead to say that sonship (redemption) comes thru grace, not Jesus’s death. Not blood sacrifice—bloodline.
“blessed us in the heavenly realms”
“chose us in him before the creation of the world”
“predestined us for adoption to sonship”
“in accordance with his pleasure”
“glorious grace”
“freely given us”
“the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us”
“he[c] made known to us”
“the mystery of his will”
“according to his good pleasure”
“to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ”
In the later verses, the focus is on Christ’s message—thus, what he said and did. There is still no reference to Jesus’s death.
“you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth”