In my book, One River, Many Wells, demonstrating and practicing Deep Ecumenism and published in the year 2000, I laid out 18 themes or principles that I found commonly taught in all world religions.
I shared teachings from Scriptures and mystics of the world religions to demonstrate how much they have in common—and how beautifully each shares their common insights.
I divided the themes into four categories: Our Relating to Creation; Our Relating to Divinity; Our Relating to Ourselves; and Our Relating to the Future.
The Conclusion chapter is called “Where Do We Go From Here? How Deep Ecumenism Explodes Our Imaginations With Eighteen New Myths And Visions.”
Themes covered include the following: From Part I: Deep Ecumenism itself or “the Universality of Experience”; Creation—All Our Relations; Light; Community and Interdependence.
From Part II: Names for God; The Feminine Face of Divinity; Wisdom: Another Feminine Face of the Divine; Form Formlessness, Nothingness; The Divine ‘I AM’: Humanity’s Share in Divinity.
From Part III: Meditation and Mindfulness; Holy Imagination: Art and Ritual as Paths to Mindfulness; Joy; Suffering; Beauty; Sacred Sexuality; Dying, Resurrection, Reincarnation.
From Part IV: Service and Compassion (including Justice and Celebration); Spiritual Warriorhood.
I share this outline of my book on Deep Ecumenism because Deep Ecumenism is so needed today, given the trials and tribulations that humanity is facing, most of which it has brought upon itself. We need the wisdom that Deep Ecumenism can summon—the obvious question being, “If science alone is not enough to rescue our species and Mother Earth, what more is required?” We cited environmental scientist Gus Speth in a recent DM, that he learned the hard way that good science alone cannot save the Earth, since behind Climate Emergency lurks humanity’s continuing compulsion to carry on selfishness, greed and apathy.
How do we address those issues? How do we diminish their power within and among us? This is where spirituality and healthy religion can work with science to combat those forces, personal and societal, that can interfere with human frailty and sin.
Notice I use the term combat. That term is intrinsic to the theme of spiritual warrior that we have been invoking of late in our Daily Meditations. The need for it as the last theme in my One River book surprised me when I wrote the book. I thought the last theme on Compassion and Justice would be suitable for ending the book. But no.
I realized that we could not implement either compassion or justice, beauty or joy, Holy Imagination or any of these common themes without an inner strength that is warrior-like. It takes spiritual warriorhood to accomplish our survival and interfere with the deep wounding of Mother Nature in our time.
Therefore, we will be exploring the archetype of spiritual warriorhood as developed by world spiritual traditions in some upcoming daily meditations.
To be continued.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, pp. if., 15-26, 404-422.
See also: Matthew Fox, “Spiritual Warriors,” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men,” pp. 77-104.
And Fox, “Faith as Trusting the Prophetic Call of the Holy Spirit,” in Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 257-264.
And Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of Our Time.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: The first World’s Parliament of Religions (1893) was one of the earliest initiatives toward Deep Ecumenism in the modern era. Photo from John Henry Barrows’ account of the event, available on the Internet Archive. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Are you sensing the need at this time in history—personally and collectively—for a deepening of strength such as the prophet or the spiritual warrior calls on? What people help model that inner strength for you?
Recommended Reading
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God
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
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
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.
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4 thoughts on “Spiritual Warriorhood, Deep Ecumenism & Battles Ahead”
Our problem is that we invariably only truly turn to God when we are ‘in trouble’. It is in those times of supposed ‘good times equanimity’ and looking to ourselves alone as Masters of Creation, that trouble begins to brew and comes to a boiling point. It is then that we are lost for answers.
During yesterday’s Homily, the Priest said that we spend 95% of our time focussed on the ‘small picture’ and maybe 5% on the ‘big picture’ of our existence. What changes would we see in ourselves and in the world if we changed those % and spent less time on ‘small picture’ thoughts, activities and pleasures and put more time into a ‘contemplative retreat and actions to nourish the Christ and Spirit within ourselves? We need more ‘daily retreat’, not an annual retreat, to move our thoughts and action from ‘of the world thinking and behaving. We can sit, settle and still ourselves in Jesus’s ‘not of the world’ nothingness and connectedness. This is the only way to fill a ‘new wineskin’. Is this not what the Mystics and Saints of all ages do? Are they not then the courageous ‘spiritual warriors’?– BB.
Yes! Deepening our inner strength on our unique spiritual journeys is closely related to taking responsibility for openness/transformation to Our SOURCE~CREATOR’S LOVE~WISDOM~CREATIVITY, guidance, strength, and co-action in our daily inner and outer lives with one another, within ALL LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS, with Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth/Nature, and with-in All spiritual dimensions of Our evolving COSMOS in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment— COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Spiritual Warriors of all sorts are needed; those who challenge the billionaires with their white boards, those who sit in stillness and Oneness, those who write books, those who dig deep and expose hidden injustices, those who never give up on the world, those who talk to their neighbors, those who fight fires figuratively and metaphorically.
No better way than another to be a spiritual warrior. All are desperately needed if we and our planet are to survive.
Let us bless one another.
There is so much wisdom in all of the world’s spiritual practitioners. A local Episcopal rector preached a very powerful sermon right after the election in which he described 3 ways that marked Christians–but these could be applied to any persons of faith. First, we proclaim only one spiritual king or God to whom we are loyal (I think it was Christ the King Sunday–what irony), not to any politician. Second, we look at things very differently from those of the prevailing culture. Third, we hold things lightly, which goes along with Matthew’s teaching of the need to let go. By not holding things tightly, we can also easily give and receive. I am a little uncomfortable with the use of “warrior” but cannot come up with an alternative term, and the concept is true. We must arm ourselves internally with spiritual practices and look for models of people like Jimmy Carter, of blessed memory. I think there is a place for righteous anger but it is only useful as a fuel to empower us to persist in working for justice. Tyrants foster and manipulate anger and fear, and it is easy to get stuck in these emotions and end up feeling hopelessness.