Synopses & Reviews
In 2015 Matthew Fox was invited by the Thomas Merton Center in Louisville, KY, to give a lecture on "Thomas Merton and Myself" to honor the centennial year of the legendary Catholic monk and writers birth. Fox likes to say that all the trouble he got in being excommunicated from his Dominican Order by Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) in 1993 is due to Merton, since he is the one who sent Fox to Paris to study spirituality and eventually receive his Doctorate of Philosophy from the Institut Catholique de Paris.
In preparing for the talk, Fox revisited his frequent intersections with Merton and immersed himself in Mertons writings. He read through Mertons journals, poetry, and religious writings, realizing that this exploration was inspiring more than a talk. The result is A Way to God, a powerful work about Mertons deep interfaith and ecumenical philosophies; about his contemplation, mysticism, and warriorhood; and about how Meister Eckhart inspired in Merton a long journey toward a spiritual understanding similar to the creation spirituality that Fox has long espoused and written about. (In Mertons final Asian journal, written as he neared the end of his life, he wrote "Eckhart is my lifeboat, Eckhart is my lifeboat.").
A Way to God is personal and intellectual, semi-biographical and autobiographical. It presents Merton in a new light and with a direct link not only to Meister Eckhart but to the creation spirituality tradition that both Merton and Eckhart lived and taught. It creates a methodology for understanding the vast and deep contribution that Merton made to the history of spirituality: the hermeneutic of the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, plus the Cosmic Christ (vs the Empires Christ), and other themes common in Merton, Eckhart, and Foxs theologies. Readers will rediscover the beauty and depth of Mertons thinking and his pioneering work in deep ecumenism, but will also discover a new dimension to Merton: his journey as a Creation Spirituality pilgrim.
Review
"The future of Christianity itself will depend upon its ability to reinvent its forms and practices so that it might become a mutually enhancing presence within the dynamics of life. Among current spiritual theologians, no one has a more comprehensive vision of the necessary changes that must take place than Matthew Fox. In A Way to God he shows how Thomas Merton’s work can be understood as a powerful current within the Creation Spirituality tradition that is so essential for this reimagining of Western religion." Brian Thomas Swimme, professor of cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies
Review
"A Way to God inscribes a profound intersection of lives — Merton, Fox, and more — in the history of Christianity, Catholicism, and the emerging Creation Spirituality so relevant to our globe’s current cultural evolution. Perhaps Merton’s lament on the ‘lost art of listening’ can be assuaged significantly by the profound potential impacts of this new book." Kurt Johnson, PhD, coauthor of The Coming Interspiritual Age
Review
'This wise and marvelous book will profoundly inspire all those who love Merton and want to know him more deeply." Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism
Synopsis
This powerful book was prompted by an invitation Matthew Fox received to speak on the centennial of Thomas Merton s birth. Fox says that much of the trouble he s gotten into such as being expelled from the Dominican Order in 1993, after thirty-four years, by Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) was because of Merton, who prompted Fox to attend the Institut Catholique in Paris to undertake a doctoral program in spirituality.
Fox reimmersed himself in Merton s journals, poetry, and religious writings, finding that Merton s marriage of mysticism and prophecy, contemplation and action closely paralleled that of Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-century mystic who inspired Fox s own Creation Spirituality. In A Way to God, Fox explores Merton s pioneering work in interfaith, his essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action, and how the vision of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his Creation Spirituality journey."
About the Author
Matthew Fox is an internationally acclaimed theologian and spiritual maverick who has spent the past forty years revolutionizing Christian theology, taking on patriarchal religion, and advocating for a creation-centered spirituality of compassion, justice, and resacralizing of the earth. Originally a Catholic priest, Fox was silenced for a year and then expelled from the Dominican Order by Cardinal Ratzinger for teaching liberation theology and Creation Spirituality. Fox currently serves as an Episcopal priest, having received what he calls “religious asylum” from the Episcopal Church. With exciting results, he has worked with young people to create the Cosmic Mass (www.thecosmicmass.com) to revitalize worship by bringing elements of rave and other postmodern art forms to the Western liturgical tradition. He has written more than thirty books, which have sold over 1.5 million copies in sixty languages. He lives in Oakland, CA.