Albert Einstein said: “We need a cosmic religion”. He saw his own religious heritage, that of Judaism, as “an ethical code that sanctifies life”. He would be horrified today at the crimes perpetrated by the state of Israel, as many Jews are. He thought that humanity’s aim should be that of “creating a cosmic man” by which he meant “a man ruled by his conscience.” Most interestingly, he also said: “Through my pursuit in science I have known cosmic religious feelings.”
The vastness of Einstein’s sentiment and vision strikes me as what is especially missing today. It pairs very well with Matthew Fox’s quest for the Cosmic Christ, which can be understood only by those who leave behind narrow beliefs and petty fears, in order to access a grand vision of life as a whole.
Many times Fox has called Christians to move from a small vision of Jesus as “personal savior” to the awareness that Divine Wisdom, exemplified to the highest degree in the life of Jesus, is present everywhere. It is a cosmic reality, not just a human reality, and surely not a Christian possession. In many ways, this means moving from an obsession with the cross to a real faith in the resurrection. But this cannot be done in our days except through a deep collaboration of people of faith with scientists and artists.
One cannot explore the meaning and power of the Cosmic Christ without a living cosmology, a living mysticism, and the spiritual discipline of art as meditation. In other words, we are bound to the holy trinity of science (knowledge of creation), mysticism (experiential union with creation and its unnameable mysteries) and art (expression of our awe at creation).
What connects all of this, I believe, is vastness. The choice to look outside oneself and see and experience the vast multifariousness of creation, receiving it within oneself and discovering oneself as part of it. This is real mysticism at its core, but is also a similar attitude to the curiosity of the scientist for nature, and it’s the impulse behind the need of the artist to create.
“Through my pursuit in science I have known cosmic religious feelings,” said Einstein. Conversations between artists, scientists, and religious people (at times, these three are alive and well within the same individual) are necessary to get rid of artificial barriers which serve nobody. But, mostly, is the moral choice between vastness and pettiness that can guide our days. Especially at a time when ethical concerns are being ridiculed and trampled upon.
Einstein quotes and more in Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest, p. 386
Matthew’s quotes from The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance, 78
Banner Image: Nursery of stars in a continuing creation: the winding arms of the spiral galaxy called NGC 3982 are lined with pink star-forming regions of glowing hydrogen, newborn blue star clusters, obscuring dust lanes that provide the raw material for future generations of stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Queries for Contemplation
How can I transform my everyday outlook, moving from petty concerns to the vastness of creation (in its pains and its joys)?
What does it mean for me to engage a trialogue between spiritual people, scientifically-minded people, and art-oriented people?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self
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.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
6 thoughts on “Science and the Cosmic Christ”
Einstein said: “We need a cosmic religion” ? With Thomas Berry, we have one. [The Dream of the Earth, The Great Work, Evening Thoughts, The Universe Story (with Brian Swimme)]
The mystic within all of us means to me the awareness/realization/transformation of Our Being~Becoming the Divine Flow of LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS with-in All of ongoing/evolving Creation in All Our physical and nonphysical spiritual dimensions of the COSMOS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT— COSMIC CHRIST….
Those quotes if Einstein are originally in the book “Einstein and the Poet” by William Hermanns, my adopted father and mentor. I helped him publish the book. I hope the book is at least cited in Matthew Fox’s book(s). I remember giving him a copy of the book.
Kenneth: I remain eternally grateful for your handing me that book and have tried my best to share it with others over the years. The reference in the DM today takes readers to my autobiography where I talk about the book and share 12 citations and 12 footnotes from it (the passage begins on page 386 as indicated and the notes are on page 480). I believe it was in Santa Rosa that you gave me this great gift. I share the story of your giving me the gift. And I have urged many over the years to buy the book. Many thanks! It is very special to me.
What humanity desperately needs is guidance from our leaders on how to transcend the illusion of our separateness. Little do they realize that every time our religious leaders use the term “God” to refer to whatever deity we are instructed to worship and be thankful for our existence, they are sowing and reinforcing the illusion of our separateness in our subconscious minds. It never occurs to the congregants that Who We Truly Are are the same conscious entities that enter into 3D space/time at The Big Bang. These entities are all the subatomic particles called “Us”. We are not “Gods”. We are the same ones who formed ourselves into all that is, including the Earth and the bodies we inhabit. All other concepts that tell us that some God or another created Us have all been invented and designed to control the minds and lives of the masses with the beliefs that the ruling elites and our religious leaders want us to embrace.
Very true. You might want to take a look at “Maya Mire – A Spiritual Journey into Cosmic Truth and the Dawning of a New World”. https://www.amazon.com/Maya-Mire-Spiritual-Journey-Dawning/dp/1803415525