We are urging the return to a Christology that is far older than that of the Nicene Creed–that of the Cosmic Christ. We have found this foundational archetype richly present in the Christian Scriptures, the Greek Fathers of the early church and the medieval mystics—all pre-modern thinkers.
The Cosmic Christ was slain in religion along with mysticism itself in great part during the Enlightenment and the mind-set it advanced. A mindset that was all about the human, so utterly anthropocentric as it was.
Today we are wrestling to detach ourselves from this narcissistic consciousness as we face the demise of Mother Earth as we know her and with it the extinction of many creatures, ourselves included. We are assisted by pre-modern voices that sing of the Cosmic Christ and therefore the inherent sacredness of the universe.
See! I am God. See! I am in everything. See! I never lift my hands off my works, nor will I ever. See! I lead everything toward the purpose for which I ordained it, without beginning, by the same Power, Wisdom and Love by which I created it. How could nothing be amiss? (Julian of Norwich, 1342-1415)
Divinity is the enfolding and unfolding of everything that is. Divinity is in all things in such a way that all things are in divinity. (Nicholas of Cusa, 1400-1464)
In all faces is seen the Face of faces, veiled in a billion riddles—yet unveiled it is not seen, until, at last, above all faces we enter into a certain secret and mystical silence of a face. (Nicholas of Cusa)
The Word of God is in all creation, visible and invisible.
This Word manifests in every creature.
Now this is how the spirit is in the flesh—the Word is indivisible from God.
The God of creation is worshipped by all creatures…Every creature has a spiritual life. (Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179)
Every creature is a word of God and a book about God.
People think God has only become a human being there—in his historical incarnation—but that is not so. For God is here—in this very place—just as much incarnate as in a human being long ago. And this is why God has become a human being: that God might give birth to you as the only begotten son/daughter, and as no less.
The seed of divine nature is the Son of God, the Word of God…The seed of God is in us. (Meister Eckhart, 1260-1327)
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 123, 126 111, 121.
Also, Fox, Stations of the Cosmic Christ
Also, Fox, Stations of the Cosmic Christ Meditation Cards
To read a transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: “Faiths of the World” by TomTom. Photo by Chris Christian on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Be with just one of these meditations. What does it awaken in you? How can it assist in awakening our species at this time in history?
Recommended Readings
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.
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
This is a book of meditations on the Cosmic Christ, accompanying the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Together, these images and meditations go far beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross to inspire a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times.
“A divinely inspired book that must be read by every human being devoted to spiritual and global survival. It is cosmically brilliant.” — Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Stations of the Cosmic Christ Meditation Cards and Guide Booklet
Beautiful full-color cards from Stations of the Cosmic Christ to aid in your meditations on the Cosmic Christ, featuring the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Step beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross and experience a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times. Includes an instruction booklet containing suggestions on how to use the cards.
21 thoughts on “Futher Teachings on the Cosmic Christ from Pre-Modern Mystics”
Matthew, You begin today by reminding us that: “We are urging the return to a Christology that is far older than that of the Nicene Creed–that of the Cosmic Christ. We have found this foundational archetype richly present in the Christian Scriptures, the Greek Fathers of the early church and the medieval mystics—all pre-modern thinkers.” And in such modern thinkers as Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Merton. The idea of the Cosmic Christ as well as a good share of mysticism was lost or buried during the Enlightenment period, as well as after WWII with Logical Positivism, and Linguistic and Analytical philosophy. We are trying to disentangle ourselves from this reductionistic thinking, and scientific materialism which draws our attention away from Mother Earth and the things of the Spirit. And so we find here that it is not modernistic thinking that saves us but the thinking of the pre-moderns like: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Meister Eckhart (1260-1327), Julian of Norwich (1342-1415), and Nicholas of Cusa (1400-1464). And today you ask us: “Be with just one of these meditations”–“People think God has only become a human being there—in his historical incarnation—but that is not so. For God is here—in this very place—just as much incarnate as in a human being long ago. And this is why God has become a human being: that God might give birth to you as the only begotten son/daughter, and as no less” (Meister Eckhart)–This is my meditation, and has been for a long time…
Let me start by saying that I trust/believe in the goodness of the Universe and the ever-present Creator that is all things. I have trouble with the concept label of the Cosmic Christ. The word christ is so much to the life of Jesus, such that as the joke goes, many think it was his last name. So the term cosmic christ on its face seems to be spiritual colonialism on a cosmic scale. Would one be as comfortable with the Cosmic Mohammed? If the word christ is used in its meaning of an anointed one who’s way leads us all to completion and fulfillment and that in fact the very Universe itself is such a christ, then I agree. But I haven’t found such distinction in the works of Matthew or Richard Rohr; or found it stated as clearly as a bloke like me needs it to read. I’d welcome learning what you all think about the term Cosmic Christ and its partial/sole/or non-attachment to person, Jesus.
A Modern- day prayer used as a daily reminder of our place in the greater scheme of things.
‘All life is one and everything is Holy.
Plants, animals and man all must live and nourish one another.
Let us eat consciously and together in resolving by our Work
to pay the debt of our existence.’
extract from J. G. Bennett
Jan, Thank you so much for sharing !!!
It is a privilege and a scientific wonder that we can listen to and see Matt Fox in our own homes.
I’m grateful for these daily meditations. I hold on to the reality that God is in us and we are in God.
AMEN, Ellen !!!
At a time of great stress in a new country I prayed for God to help me. I didn’t know who I was. I had two children to support. I was terrified I was going insane. I went to visit a neighbour as he father was hospitalised and she was too frail to visit him. I went after work to see him. As I made my way back to the bus stop I pondered on the experience of being with this elderly man. I wondered if it was as Jesus says, “what you do to others you do to me” and I felt tremulous and unsure, and then coming towards me was an Aboriginal
Man wearing a hand-me-down suit in bare feet and he was looking at me and I at him, and as we passed each other in the throng I recognised Jesus and my eyes filled with tears of pure joy. I knew who I was: I was an expression of the love of God. I have never been anything else.
Thank you with all my heart.
Mary Flynn
Mary, And what a blessed recognition it was !!!!
Thank you so much, Matthew for your thoughts on panentheism this morning, especially for your quotes from Mechtild of Magdeburg – these medieval Christian mystics have so much to teach us, so much that gloriously transcends the dogma of institutional churches, their spiritual wisdom is truly timeless, beyond the strictures of time in fact. Being a lifelong fan of the music of Miles Davis, I am intrigued to know about the painting of Miles Davis on the wall behind you during your transmission this morning – who is the artist? Thank you again for your tgoiughts this morning and for your compassion for those who need those thoughts lto enrich their lives. God bless you. Roy Exley.
First of all I want to say that I am grateful for these daily meditations. They have been a tremendous benefit to me. But I need some help. Could someone please tell me if there is a difference between God being in human beings and God becoming a human being? I have been trying to understand this for quite some time and can’t seem to find an answer anywhere. I read that in Hinduism that and Avatar is an incarnation of God’s self and is not a created human self (unless I understood it wrong). Is it the same in Christian understanding? If it is then that would make sense to me. If this is not the place for a theology lesson then I understand. I don’t know what God is and theological terms are difficult for me to grasp. Thank you if anyone can help me
Carol, Today you ask the question: “Could someone please tell me if there is a difference between God being in human beings and God becoming a human being?” And then you ask if it is something like the idea of an Avatar in Hinduism. This is a tricky question. First of all, whereas traditional Christianity teaches that God became incarnate in the child Jesus, once and only once, whereas in Hinduism the God Vishnu has been incarnate in a number of different beings–some even number the Buddha and Christ among those incarnations, but Christians have never accepted this. I however feel that we humble believers tend to believe in Christ as we feel fit, and most of us do not have to have the classical Christologies in mind when we think of Christ anyway. At one time Raimon Panikkar wrote The Unknown Christ of Hinduism. Its an interesting read…
Thank you Richard. I have been thinking of getting that book.
In Mystical theology, God/the Father/the One/the Nameless is conveyed as universally and forever One with everything and everyone, while also, simultaneously, mostly beyond any type of human conception (transcendent beyond even the deepest, transcendent unitive mystical awareness). (i.e., panentheism). God also has a transcendent aspect or mode, mirroring Him, that’s like a template of Potential Existence (outside time/space/matter), a Wisdom/Knowledge-revealing, direct reflection of God’s Self as eternally a pure ACT of Creating/Loving, and is called the Son/Logos/the Transcendent. The “product” or Artform that’s made by the Son, flows from Him and is forever united with Him, is called Creation/the Universe, and includes humans with our intellectually dualistic (one thing distinct and separate from another), information-seeking brains.
Mysticism teaches that humans are NEVER truly cut away from God/Love, but they can “turn away from” God and lose their OWN awareness of their soul’s intimate connection with the Source. The turning away creates a soul-woundedness, a painful feeling of separation. The perceived duality of humans apart from God is the illusion. Dualism is the lie, a product of human intellect and ego.
Melinda, Thank you for your comment: “Mysticism teaches that humans are NEVER truly cut away from God/Love, but they can “turn away from” God and lose their OWN awareness of their soul’s intimate connection with the Source. The turning away creates a soul-woundedness, a painful feeling of separation. The perceived duality of humans apart from God is the illusion. Dualism is the lie, a product of human intellect and ego.” The only thing I would add is, and which we all know, is that in our everyday day-to-day life we still have to function as if dualism is true, or we could step off of a tall building only to find out that a down accompanied the up on top of the building. But I do agree with you 100% on the level of mystical experience we are longing for Oneness…
Thank you Matthew for the loving quotes of Divine Love~Wisdom/Sophia~Cosmic Christ, Present within, through, among us, All in All, especially in our Sacred Mother Nature/Earth, in our eternal ongoing co-Creation~Evolution of our sacred multidimensional-multiverse Loving Oneness Cosmos….
🔥💜🌎🙏
I am grateful for the resurrection of the true message of the Cosmic Christ… preserved and once hidden, through the lineage of mystics within Christian Spirituality… now being revealed.
For many years in my searching, I couldn’t find what I was intuitively sensing and being led towards, within my own spiritual roots. When I couldn’t find it there… I did find the same true message that the lineage of mystics had preserved… all be it in the essence of Shamanic Spirituality.
Spirit intuitively then guided me to return to my original Christian roots. There were things that needed to be reconciled… falsehoods that needed to be disentangled… things to be unlearned… new truths to be rewoven. Spirit led me to Creation Spirituality and to the lineage of mystics that I am rooted in. Weaving together what I embody from within these spiritual pathways, I live the same eternal, cosmic reality found in both…
“See, I AM the Great Spirit. I AM in everything… unfolding within all things. Veiled, yet unveiled. Enter… into a certain secret and mystical silence… the Great Mystery… visible and invisible in all creation… manifesting in every creature, by the Spirit. Every creature has a Spirit. Every creature is a book about God… whom is incarnate… here present in presence and essence… within everything. The Great Spirit… is continously giving birth… to the seeds of the Divine nature sealed within all creation.”
Jeanette, Today you wrote: “Spirit intuitively then guided me to return to my original Christian roots. There were things that needed to be reconciled… falsehoods that needed to be disentangled… things to be unlearned… new truths to be rewoven. Spirit led me to Creation Spirituality and to the lineage of mystics that I am rooted in.” Well, welcome home !!! to what has been the only form of Christianity I can live with, and that is real to me.
“In all faces is seen the Face of faces, veiled in a billion riddles—yet unveiled it is not seen, until, at last, above all faces we enter into a certain secret and mystical silence of a face. (Nicholas of Cusa)”
This meditation moved me. The image of gazing into a silent face suggests a feeling of intimacy. I always long for this sense of intimacy with the cosmos. That is something we can lose when our daily chores of living no longer involve direct contact with nature.
Great Mystery—beyond the religions of man, beyond the threshold…
“In all faces is seen the Face of faces, . . . ”
Brings a cascade of thoughts from the intiutive understanding of it I’ve had since childhood, to a sort of grief that it’s been so long misunderstood and cast aside, to wondering if C.S. Lewis had ever read this before he wrote “Until We Have Faces” . . .
Thanks.
I am wondering about how the mystics thought about the season of Lent and how it enhanced their spiritual growth and loving actions.