When Matthew Fox was silenced by the Vatican, that is, in the second half of the 1980s, many other Catholic theologians were similarly betrayed. Dismissals, condemnations, job losses, loss of community and friendships… all kinds of strategies were employed by Ratzinger — then at the head of the Inquisition — to deal a blow to the very real possibility that the largest Christian denomination on earth would become a hub for social transformation.
Theological dialogue within the Roman Catholic Church was going to be stunted for decades, and it has hardly recovered.
It’s ironic that most people who know something about the Catholic Church, but have not studied the issue in any depth, talk of Ratzinger — later pope Benedict XVI — as a “great theologian.” By all measurements available to the theological academy, he was a mediocre thinker. He was also a cruel human being, who managed through some very obscure methods to be elected to the highest positions.
In any case, it seems to me that three men were especially targeted at that time, each being the best-selling Catholic theologian in one geographical area: Matthew Fox in North America, Leonardo Boff in South America, and Eugen Drewermann in Europe. Each of them was bringing a revolutionary perspective, elaborated independently of one another, even though obviously dependent on the studies and efforts of many before them.
Those three visions, when combined and favored by the Church authorities, could have produced such a massive transformation that we would live in a different world today. After all, then the Catholic Church still exercised a great deal of cultural influence. Instead, the old Roman saying “divide and conquer” was implemented single-handedly by Ratzinger, with the staunch approval of John Paul II.
What prevents us, today, from going back to that moment in time and imagining what the merging of these three perspectives can still mean for us? It is true that — as Matthew Fox has explained — each was tuned to its specific geo-cultural context and offered paths specific to such context. However, the contacts that happened between those three perspectives at that time, as well as afterwards, are a clear enough indication that a cross-fertilization is possible.
I am thinking, for example, of Matthew’s trip to Brazil and his meeting with Leonardo Boff, as recounted in his autobiography. The results of that trip can be glimpsed in Matthew’s book Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth (1991), in which Matthew underscores the essential point of contact between Liberation Theology, championed by Leonardo, and Creation Spirituality itself. Wisdom education and ecclesiogenesis are the two main points of consonance.
Ecclesiogenesis means birthing the Church in new ways, independent of existing structures. Boff at that time was speaking of the history of the church as “genuine history,” that is, the creation of never-before-experienced novelty, by means of the base communities, that is, places where people are speaking and acting from their own experience. Matthew responded by pointing to his own unreserved welcoming of feminism as kind of picklock to open up the moldy rooms of church meetings, and he cites with hope all the places in North America practicing a circular kind of sharing.
Wisdom education, which Matthew pursued and keeps pursuing, is a desperately needed alternative to the very dry and boring Western school system. It means teaching ways to open and strenghten the heart and create harmony with earth, self, other species, and with the creative “mind” of the universe. This project also echoes deeply with Boff’s call to reinvent teaching, learning, and even theology itself. People learn from people, and the theologians — who claims to deal with the highest possible subject, the divine itself — must learn from common people, aside from books, if theology is to be first and foremost a liberating practice.
Both Matthew Fox and Leonardo Boff, as well as Eugen Drewermann, were silenced. The Church authorities tried to humiliate them in open as well as subtle ways. This kind of suppression, however, may work only for a while. If the seed is strong and true, it will prevail. I am thinking of the moment when we realized that one of the main authors behind pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si‘ was one of Matthew’s students, and that Leonardo was directly consulted by the Vatican during the writing of it. Sprouts will keep showing up, I am sure.
Matthew says that one of his favorite music pieces is Leonard Bernstein’s aria about how the word of God cannot be chained. In fact, the message of each of the three theologians I am focusing on continues one, and each of them individually thrived in their own way. Nothing should hold us back from studying their works today and imagine a cross-fertilization of kind. I think that this effort might reveal itself as a very productive avenue for a global culture that seems completely unable to look into its own depths, as these three authors instead have been doing for decades.
In the next few DMs, I would like in particular to discuss the work of Eugen Drewermann and its points of contact with Creation Spirituality, as this particular bridge has been less explored than the one between Fox and Boff that I have briefly sketched above.
Banner Image: Prophetic Dissenters: L-R: Eugen Drewerman (Wikimedia Commons, public domain), Matthew Fox (Photo by Bridgette O’Leary, used with permission), and Leonardo Boff (Wikimedia Commons).
Queries for Contemplation
Are you aware of Liberation Theology? What are its major ideas that have influenced you (if any)? What would you be curious to know about it?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
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