I have always been interested in exploring the beginnings of Matthew Fox’s theological career, as I am convinced that the way one lays out one’s perspective on life and being is key to understanding everything that happens later.
However, in this exploration of mine, I have overlooked until now a book published originally in 1976, thus quite early in Matthew’s career, which goes by the title Whee! We, Wee All The Way Home: A Guide to Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality. I believe that going back to such a book can provide extremely precious insights, not only to understand his work in its entirety, but especially for a chaotic time like ours.
The main idea that Matthew develops in the first part of the book is that the experience of ecstasy is the experience of God. This sentence alone would deserve several books for unpacking it, not because it is obscure, but because it goes to the root of so many unresolved cultural issues that my mind reels when I simply read or speak it.
It is a very important idea for us today, for the following reasons:
1. Today “God” is either expunged from common discourse, or is used as a signpost for Christofascist ideologies; therefore, bringing back God in defiance of both the “death of God” claims and the fascist, blasphemous uses of the Sacred Name can be a revolutionary move;
2. Today “ecstasy” is commodified or vilified, that is, some people make use of an increasing quantity of chemical substances in order to experience something out of the ordinary — as their everyday experience is quite miserable — while other people condemn all kinds of search for ecstatic experiences — thus reducing human life, and even religion, to an ethical experience free from any scent of the sacred;
3. Today “experience” is mostly an unknown reality, in the sense that the personal unique qualities associated to true personal experience are being squashed by the lack of time to savor them, and by the general regimentation induced by consumerist society.
Just by simply touching on the three words involved in the Foxian sentence “the experience of ecstasy is the experience of God,” we have gotten enough material to muse upon. But let’s add Matthew’s definition of ecstasy: Ecstasy is a memorable experience of forgetting oneself, of getting outside of oneself. Here is the crux of the matter. What is missing today — which explains why the world is going so bad — is the courage to go beyond one’s comfort zone and, in so doing, touch the divine.
Be it through nature, friendship, music, sex, art, etc., there are many alleys available to human beings in order to experience ecstasy, that is, to have an experience of life that is not possible to control and regiment. But what cannot be regimented cannot be reproduced and sold. Their surrogates are produced and sold, of course, but they achieve the opposite results, that of leading people away from the Sacred Source, which theologians like myself call God.
Transcending oneself, not simply as a result of effort but as the experience of a gift, has been for all of human history a major component of culture. Fox writes that in experiencing ecstasy, we are experiencing what our forefathers in spiritual traditions called ‘grace’. Thus the death of God is a concern, not because with it dies the symbol of social order and control, but because the fundamental and basic experience of transcendence, of forgetting one’s ego, risks to be commodified and ultimately eliminated.
It does not matter, in the end, if people use or not use the word “God,” but whether the experience of the sacred, that is, ecstatic experience — which is so naturally available and yet so incredibly denied today — is preserved and transmitted to future generations. To be clear, to me as a theologian that means honoring God and living in God.
Playing a game, talking freely with a friend, walking alone in nature may seem obvious things, but to the extent that we live those things deeply we get freedom from our ego and we touch the divine. These are, after all, the most mystical and political acts we can enjoy, in the sense that they constitute that very essential element of human culture and civilization which is continually undermined in our time.
Banner Image: A sensual divine union. Art by Eva Michalkova on Pixabay.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you find helpful Matthew’s definition of the experience of the divine as an experience of ecstasy, i.e. forgetting oneself and getting outside of oneself?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality, pp. 43-44, 76.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet.
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart.
8 thoughts on “The Experience of Ecstasy as the Experience of God”
You wrote a remarkable concept: freedom from the ego can lead to experiencing the divine. And— experiencing ecstasy can facilitate the experience.
What a diversionary labeling of some recreational drugs we have today.
Thank you Gianluigi for this reminder of the importance of ecstasy! Another way to put it is that “ec-stasy” literally means “outside state.” When I move outside the boundaries of my usual “ex-istence,” I enter “istence,” also called “essence,” also called “the divine.” The outside of outside is inside, isn’t it?.
YES! This mystery that the mystical experience of ecstasy or DIVINE LOVE is always available and potentially Present within and among All of Us each in our unique Way is indeed a grace of the Divine Spark that we’re All a part of Our BEAUTIFUL Co-CREATOR~SOURCE in LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS and DIVINE SPIRIT~FLOW of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
Thank you Gianluigi.
I vividly remember meeting Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme in Toronto in the 1970s. The new Catholic New Times newspaper covered their visit and lecture series. I was amazed, delighted and inspired by “Whee! We Wee”. And yes, it remains relevant today.
The word “ecstasy, “ seems to have become limited to a physical/sexual experience. It is not by accident that there is now a drug called ecstasy, offering a “quick fix.” “Transcendence” seems far more applicable to the spiritual experience the Greeks called “metanoia.”
The “Divine Experience” is a very specific type of Revelation. It is hinted at, in ways that are recognizable to the Mystic, in certain Biblical passages. Jesus hinted at them, and the Gospel of John begins with the clearest statement of it.
“Ecstasy” (good feelings) is NOT this experience. Those experiences CAN have value, but they are not the Divine Mystical Revelation.
Meister Eckhart is one of the Christians who had this Divine experience, but it is sacred to Judaism, Plato (somewhat) and Plotinus (clearly), Christianity, Islam (via Sufism), some Gnostics, and most Hindus.
I explored some of the issues of this experience in texts that are now in the archives of this newsletter (in the “discussions” sections).
Thank you, GG, for the equating of ecstasy with a transcendent experience that can happen in the midst of daily life with the simplest of activities. I think of Brother Lawrence, who teaches the practice of being fully aware and open to communion with the divine in the washing of dishes, among other ordinary tasks, and there are always such opportunities for prayer. Some seem to see ecstasy as requiring a vision, ala Teresa of Avila. But I have always taken comfort from William James’ classic, “The Varieties of Religious Experience”. There is no hierarchy or specificity to religious experience, which often involves quiet and subtle awakenings to the Presence. And one cannot manufacture or call up such experiences, one can only be open to them. Prayers and practices of various sorts, such as physical/musical movement can help prepare the “ground”, but none of it is within my control. I am surprised and in awe and grateful when such moments occur in my life, often by being outside in nature. So far, none has been dramatic, only a brief experience of one-ness.
You rock, GG! And Matthew! Ecstasy = Experience of Sacred Source. Yaaay!