Matthew Fox (priest) - Life

Life

Fox, originally named Timothy James Fox, was born in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1967, when he entered the Roman Catholic Church's Order of Preachers (the Dominican order) he was given the name Matthew Timothy Fox, his "name in religion". He received masters degrees in both philosophy and theology from the Aquinas Institute of Theology and later earned a Ph.D. in spirituality (graduating summa cum laude) from the Institut Catholique de Paris. After receiving his Ph.D., Fox began teaching at a series of Catholic universities, beginning in 1972 in Chicago with Barat College of the Sacred Heart (later purchased by DePaul University and subsequently closed).

In 1976, he moved to Chicago’s Mundelein College (now part of Loyola University), to start the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality, which developed an alternative pedagogy whose divergences from Catholic orthodox theology eventually would lead to severe conflict with church authorities. The institute’s programs integrated such training as “art as meditation” and “body prayer” with an intention to recreate for modern practitioners the visceral, emotional and intellectual connections that early church mystics had with their faith.

In 1983, Fox moved the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality to Oakland and began teaching at Holy Names University, where he was a professor for 12 years.

Also in 1983, Catholic Church leadership began officially reviewing Fox’s teachings and theological divergences. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican administrative body charged with teaching and defending church doctrine – ordered a panel of Dominican priests and theologians to perform a two-year review of Fox’s writings. When the initial findings found in Fox’s favor, Cardinal Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI, rejected them and ordered a second review which was never undertaken. Some scholars say these traditions are close to those that were first laid out by Jesus.

Among Fox’s most controversial teachings was a belief in "original blessing", which became the title of one of his most popular books. The concept was in direct contravention of the Roman Catholic doctrine that people are born into "original sin". Fox’s teachings also were considered more feminist and ecology-centered, and more accepting of homosexuality than church orthodoxy.

In 1988, Fox wrote a public letter to Cardinal Ratzinger entitled "Is the Catholic Church Today a Dysfunctional Family?", which was subsequently widely disseminated by the National Catholic Reporter. Soon after, Cardinal Ratzinger issued an order forbidding Fox to teach or lecture for a year.

In 1993, Fox’s conflicts with Catholic authorities climaxed with his expulsion from the Dominican order for "disobedience", effectively ending his professional relationship with the church and his teaching at its universities. Cardinal Ratzinger ordered the expulsion after Fox refused to respond to a summons to discuss his writings with his superiors in the Roman Catholic Church. Among the issues Fox was asked to defend were that he: called God "Mother";” preferred the concept of Original Blessing over Original Sin; worked too closely with Native American spiritual practices; did not condemn homosexuality; and taught the four paths of creation spirituality—the Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa and Via Transformativa instead of the church’s classical three paths of purgation, illumination and union.

After his expulsion, Fox met young Anglican activists in England who were using "raves" as a way to bring life back to their liturgy and to attract young people to church worship. He was inspired to begin holding his own series of “Techno Cosmic Masses” in Oakland and other U.S. cities, events designed to connect people to a more ecstatic and visceral celebration and relationship with their spirituality.

That initial Anglican connection became more formal when he was received into the Episcopal Church (Anglican Communion) as a priest in 1994 by Bishop William Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of California.

In 1996, Fox founded the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, an outgrowth of his institutes at Mundelein and Holy Names. The university offered similar master’s degree programs in creation spirituality and related studies. It was initially accredited through an affiliation with New College of California, before shifting in 1999 to affiliate with the Naropa Institute of Boulder, Colorado, creating and running Naropa’s master’s degree program.

The university also added a separate doctorate of ministry degree, with a curriculum based on his 1993 book The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time, which talked about a "priesthood of all workers".

Fox led the University of Creation Spirituality for nine years, then was succeeded as president by James Garrison in 2005. The institution was subsequently renamed Wisdom University.

Since leaving the university, Fox has continued to lecture, write and publish books. In 2005, he founded an educational organization called Youth and Elder Learning Laboratory for Ancestral Wisdom Education (YELLAWE). The YELLAWE program is based on a holistic approach to education and creativity derived from Fox’s master’s level programs. It also includes physical training in bodily meditation practices such as tai chi. YELLAWE has operated in inner-city school systems in Oakland and Chicago and, as of late 2010, had announced plans to expand to school systems in Hawaii and Chattanooga, Tennessee.