A New Reformation

I've been busy working and teaching but wanted to share a few thoughts about some more books that I've read recently. The first is by the former Dominican priest and current Episcopalian theologian Matthew Fox (A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2006).

Fox has a number of interesting insights, including his central idea that the church (in the broad sense of Christianity as a whole) is in need of a new reformation akin to the spiritual movements for renewal in 16th-century Europe. In contrast to some elements of traditional Christianity, including emphasis on punishment, patriarchal control, and the marginalization of women, the earth, other species, science, and LGBT folk, Fox suggests a new model which "recognizes the Original Blessing from which all being derives" (19). This model "recognizes awe, rather than sin and guilt, as the starting point of true religion...It prefers trust over fear and an understanding of a divinity who is [the] source of all things, as much mother as father, as much female as male...and tries to consider the whole earth as a holy temple..." (19-20).

Perhaps there are elements of Fox's ideas that we might agree or disagree with, or perhaps we might each place our own emphases slightly differently. In any case, however, I do think that Fox is onto something in the sense that it is long past due for Christianity to move beyond the elements of its tradition that are hindering it from effectively witnessing to and genuinely fostering care for the integral well being of humanity and of all creation.