The Brilliance Of Meister Eckhart, A Visionary For Our Times with Father Matthew Fox, Ph.D.

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Meister Eckhart was a 13^th and 14^th century preacher and mystic, yet like the poet Rumi he remains relevant today. In his day, he challenged the vested power interest of patriarchy as well as of economic privilege, and he paid the price for it with a Papal condemnation. Meister Eckhart’s entire effort could be seen as healing that broken bridge from dogma to the inner experience of God and trying to restart Christianity into something experiential. He described the two aspects of Jesus. There is the historic Jesus who was an activist and challenged the Romans as well as the temple priests. And there is the Cosmic Christ described by Fox as “…that experience of unleashing the power of the image of God, the power of the Son and Daughter of God that we’re all called to participate in.” He also critiques our educational systems, “If we’re not teaching awe, we’re not teaching wisdom; we’re just teaching knowledge. All levels of school today are knowledge factories, not wisdom schools. We need wisdom to survive as a species. Wisdom is feminine around the world and in the Bible… This dimension of the feminine is missing in our patriarchal version of education, which is not only boring the young today but is also very expensive.” (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

Bio

Father Matthew Fox is a priest and was a member of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church for thirty-four years. For speaking out on women’s rights, gay rights, and Native American rights, he was silenced for a year and later expelled from the Dominican Order under the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. He then joined the Episcopal Church to work with young people to create postmodern forms of ritual and worship known as the “Cosmic Mass” that incorporates dance, DJ, VJ, rap, and other postmodern art forms. He is the co-founder of the Order of the Sacred Earth and, since Mother’s day 2019, has offered free daily meditations. He holds a doctorate in History and Theology of Spirituality and is founder of the University of Creation Spirituality. 

Dr. Fox is the author of more than thirty books including:

• Original Blessing (Tarcher 2000)
• Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times (Nameste Publishing 2012)
• Letters to Pope Francis (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2013)
• Occupy Spirituality (co-author Adam Bucko) (North Atlantic Press 2013)
• Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth (HarperOne 1991)
• The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (HarperOne 1988)
• Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times (New World Library 2014)
• Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (HarperSanFrancisco 2015)
• A Way to God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey (New World Library 2016)
• Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action (coauthors Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Listug) (Monkfish 2018)
• Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality (Ixia 2020)
• The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times (iUniverse 2020) 

To learn more about the work of Matthew Fox go to www.matthewfox.org.

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• Who is Meister Eckhart and why is he relevant today
• How Eckhart fomented the peasant uprising which ultimately led to the Reformation
• What was the Beguine Movement and how did it give women wider choices
• How the term “Godhead” includes the feminine
• What is the importance of “nothingness” in theology
• What are the two wings of real Christianity: the historical Jesus and the Cosmic Christ
• How the experience of a sweat lodge conjures up ancient memories that reside in our DNA
• How we can experience God in nature
• How our schools are boring our children and are only teaching information and not wisdom
• How we need a new economy beyond the gross national product ideology

Host: Justine Willis Toms   Interview Date: 8/12/2014   Program Number: 3517

Music Playlist

From Album: Fresh Impressions
Artist: Georgia Kelly and Steven Kindler
1987 Global Pacific Records #GPD 329

Opening Essay: Track 01 Sicilienne by Eric Satie
Music Break 1: Track 09 Pastorale d'eté by Arthur Honegger
Music Break 2: Track 05 Gnossienne #2 by Eric Satie
Music Break 3: Track 06 Gnossienne #3 by Eric Satie