Confessions, Revised and Updated: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest

Description

"In Confessions, Matthew Fox recounts his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy to Dominican priest to theologian, and the story of how he eventually found it necessary to stand up to the Vatican. It also tells the story of our times and the Catholic church's efforts at renewal at the Vatican Council, the abortion of that movement by two subsequent papacies (John Paul II and Benedict XVI), and the price many have paid for that betrayal. Fox was but one of 105 theologians silenced, condemned, and deprived of their livelihood by a papacy that "destroyed theology" and theological discourse, but was the most visible one in North America. After breaking with the Roman Catholic Church, Fox was confirmed as an Episcopal priest, and began working to reclaim spirituality from the bonds of organized religion while reinventing meaningful ritual through his "Cosmic Mass," geared particularly to the younger generation. Confessions describes the alternative programs and theological perspectives Fox brought forth in his thirty-two books and alternative pedagogy for reinventing education. Confessions is a remarkable story of activism for our times. Three new chapters in th

"Matthew Fox (b. 1940) is an internationally acclaimed theologian who was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He holds a doctorate, summa cum laude, in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. He has been working for forty years to recover the ancient and earth-centered creation spirituality tradition of Christianity. Fox has taught at Stanford University, Vancouver School of Theology, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies among other places. He is currently visiting scholar with the Academy for the Love of Learning headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is author of 32 books which have sold more than 1.5 million copies in 56 languages. Fox is recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award of which other recipients have included the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks and Maya Angelou. He is also a recipient of the Ghandi-King-Ikeda Award from Morehouse College International Chapel that is awarded for dedication to peace, unity, non-violence and justice."

"This highly charged autobiography of a priestly life will stand as a lasting memorial to the difficulty of maintaining certain articles of faith and dogma at a time of shifting cultural paradigms. Fox's portrait of himself as he realizes that the truth he is pursuing is incompatible with the truth that his church can allow him to believe is likely to become a classic." -Publishers Weekly "'Hearing Matt Fox talk, I feel less lonely in the universe,' said a street priest fifteen years ago. We should all feel less lonely now with this exhilarating, deeply companionable book in our hands. 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 "Traditionally, when big government in the church tries to silence a good soul, it indicates that the soul is often far ahead of the times. Matthew Fox is such a person. He writes simply, powerfully, about his life as a visionary. He continues now, as before, to give out the twenty-first-century keys to the kingdom." -Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD., author of Women Who Run with the Wolves "Matthew Fox has created a new mythic context for leading us out of our contemporary religious and spiritual confusion into a new clarity of mind and peace of soul, by affirming rather than abandoning any of our traditional beliefs." -Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work "Matthew Fox is one of our greatest and most essential teachers. In his updated Confessions he takes us on a journey into the depths of his heart and mind and shares the fierce ordeals and saving revelations that have shaped his pioneering work. Read this unique book and share it with others." -Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism "Jung developed the idea that when the unconscious of any tribe, group, or community, is disturbed in its collective functioning 'there is always a medicine man who has a dream concerning the matter.' Matthew Fox is such a man. He recognizes that healing is a natural part of the via transformativia and that it is a priestly function to contribute, through compassion and social justice, to the healing of the collectivity." -Steven Herrmann, PhD, MFT, author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward