To say that the modern era is behind us is to say that a new vision is beckoning us, a new view of the universe that is reaching out to us. Call it the vision of Cosmogenesis, a cosmos that is birthing all around us and through us. A vision not of machinery but of generation and creativity going on for 13.8 billion years.
No education, no religion, no profession, no work that ignores this eminent power of creativity can serve us well as a species in the future. No worldview that leaves out creativity therefore can appeal to the young and beckon them to be their best selves. The malaise that besets our species today is a malaise born of ignoring the new cosmology therefore.
That is Step Number One in responding to the ennui of the young around the globe: Let anthropocentrism go—in education and religion and our professions—and allow the universe to enter. With all its splendor and “glory” and creativity and urgency. Human inventions like the Webb Telescope are beginning to do that. As they arouse the splendor and grandeur and beauty and mystery of the universe, awe, wonder, and the sacred return.
How amazing that our planet exists at all. And that we do too.
How amazing that it is filled with wondrous creatures striving to be themselves and care for their young—name some: giraffes and elephants and whales and fishes and birds that soar and birds that sing and forests and rainforests and cats and dogs and horses and all that are eager to hang out with humans, receive our affection and teach us things.
All this is the cosmos coming home. It bespeaks Immensity, Intensity and Intimacy—all three of which make up what a human being is and is capable of.
Are education and religion and media capable of welcoming and lighting the fire of our Immensity, Intensity and Intimacy? If so, they are healthy. If not, they are unhealthy.
If so, they have something to say to the young. If not, they have nothing to say to the young.
Step Number One in exciting the young is to welcome them to the cosmos anew, to its 13.8-billion-year history that has brought us all here; to its place in a theater of two trillion galaxies and counting. To the sacredness of the universe that has birthed us.
See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
See Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
See Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
See Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
Banner Image: A Bureau of Land Management agent introduces a toddler to the sights visible through binoculars on the high prairie. Photo by U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Are you finding yourself moved by the new cosmology and the lessons of cosmogenesis and creativity built into the universe? And the earth? And humans? Do you find this in working with the young and are you assisting young adults make space for it?
Recommended Reading
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
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
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.
3 thoughts on “Step Number One in Awakening the Young: Cosmogenesis”
Yes! The recent works of theologians Iia Delio and John Haught about the mystic and cosmologist Teilhard de Chardin have inspired me to appreciate the intimate relationships between our humanity and Cosmic spiritual evolutions.
I’m very excited about the new understanding of the cosmos. I read Brian Swimm’s book, Cosmogenesis and went back to the beginning and read it again. Then I read The Universe Is a Green Dragon. I am 83 years old and am delighted to get this new, deeper understanding of God’s magnificent creation and seeing into the principles that guide it and that can guide as all to become truer children of God.
The photos taken by the JWST are stunning and when I need to feel the majesty of creation, I often turn to them. I like how you keep pointing out to us that creativity began with God and that we are made in God’s image–thus, we are here to create and use our creativity for good, since God is goodness. “No education, no religion, no profession, no work that ignores this eminent power of creativity can serve us well as a species in the future.” I agree.