Week of 8/14-19/2023: Exploring the Via Transformativa

August 14, 2023. Welcome to the Via Transformativa
We explore Matthew’s thoughts on the Via Transformativa. He says: The creation-centered spiritual tradition considers compassion rather than contemplation as the fulfillment of the spiritual journey…. Furthermore: Compassion is the moral law of interconnectivity, the cosmic law of responding to another’s pain and suffering as well as to another’s joy and celebration. 

August 15, 2023. Some Things that Justice-Doers Do
Matthew tells us that We become ‘sons and daughters of God’ by being peacemakers, justice-doers, prophets. About women, Matthew says: Religion often legitimizes the oppression of women with a kind of divine sanction. In contrast, creation spirituality celebrates women’s wisdom and experience. Also: Creation spirituality insists that all are mystics and all are prophets and that all persons are called both to their own dignity and to responsibility and leadership. 

August 16, 2023. A Mystical Planetary Awakening
Regarding the balance of the sacred male and female, Matthew says the following: What does it take to bring the healthy mother back to balance with the healthy father in us all? I believe the answer lies in a deep mystical awakening the likes of which the planet has never witnessed before—a mystical awakening that is truly planetary…. Also: If we can awaken to authentic mysticism, then a resurrection of Mother Earth is possible. 

August 17, 2023. Deep Ecumenism and the Via Transformativa
About the role of Deep Ecumenism in our world, Matthew says: Deep ecumenism is the movement that will unleash the wisdom of all world religions—Hinduism and Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, Taoism and Shintoism, Christianity in all its forms, and native religions and goddess religions throughout the world. He also reminds us: Like all authentic ecumenism the result will not be to abandon one’s tradition but to demand more of it. 

August 18, 2023. A Sensual Mysticism
Rick Reich-Kuykendall reminds us that the root of “sensual” means “endowed with feeling.” About “sensual mysticism,” Matthew says: A sensual mysticism is clearly the surest route to a prophetic consciousness. About desire, Matthew says: Desire moves people to commit themselves to great things; it is not the enemy. About compassion, he says: Compassion means “passion with,”to be in solidarity of feeling with the joy and pain of another.

August 19, 2023. What it Means to be an American & How Prayer & Compassion Can Help
About prayer, Matthew says: We are prayerful when we undergo mystical experiences and when we march in the streets or struggle to resist shadow forces through reinventing work, education, or religions. And: I define prayer as a radical response to life. He also said: Jesus came preaching the kingdom and what we got was the churches—what a let down! 

Banner image: The Butterfly is often a symbol of transformation. Photo by Håkon Grimstad on Unsplash

Recommended Reading

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.

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