Original Blessing

by Fox, Matthew (Author)

• ISBN13: 9781585420674
• ISBN10: 1585420670
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Tarcher

Summary

Here is a reissue of the critically acclaimed bestseller, named one of the "20 books that changed the world" in New Age Journal's Annual Source Book for 1995. Maverick theologian Matthew Fox provides a daring view of historical Christianity and a theologically sound basis for personal discovery of spiritual liberation. In this revolutionary work, Fox shows how Christianity once celebrated beauty, compassion, justice, and provided a path of positive knowledge and ecstatic connection with all creation.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2000 Edition	3	(6)
Introduction: Two Questions Apropos of Wisdom and Human/Earth Survival	9	(26)
PATH I BEFRIENDING CREATION: THE VIA POSITIVA
Dabhar: The Creative Energy (Word) of God	35	(7)
Creation as Blessing and the Recovery of the Art of Savoring Pleasure	42	(15)
Humility as Earthiness: Our Earthiness as a Blessing along with Passion and Simplicity	57	(9)
Cosmic, Universalist: Harmony, Beauty, Justice as Cosmic Energies	66	(15)
Trust: A Psychology of Trust and Expansion	81	(7)
Panentheism: Experiencing the Diaphanous and Transparent God	88	(5)
Our Royal Personhood: Our Dignity and Responsibility for Building the Kingdom/Queendom of God. Creation Theology as a Kingdom/Queendom Theology	93	(10)
Realized Eschatology: A New Sense of Time	103	(5)
Holiness as Cosmic Hospitality: Creation Ecstasies Shared Constitute the Holy Prayer of Thanksgiving and Praise	108	(9)
Sin, Salvation, Christ from the Perspective of the Via Positiva: A Theology of Creation and Incarnation	117	(15)
PATH II BEFRIENDING DARKNESS, LETTING GO AND LETTING BE: THE VIA NEGATIVA
Emptying: Letting Go of Images and Letting Silence Be Silence	132	(8)
Being Emptied: Letting Pain Be Pain: Kenosis	140	(8)
Sinking into Nothingness and Letting Nothingness Be Nothingness	148	(9)
Sin, Salvation, Christ in the Perspective of the Via Negativa: A Theology of the Cross	157	(21)
PATH III BEFRIENDING CREATIVITY, BEFRIENDING OUR DIVINITY: THE VIA CREATIVA
From Cosmos to Cosmogenesis: Our Divinization as Images of God Who Are Also Co-Creators	178	(10)
Art as Meditation: Creativity and Birthing as Meditation, Centering, a Return to the Source	188	(13)
Faith as Trust of Images: Discipline---Yes! Asceticism---No!	201	(7)
Dialectical, Trinitarian: How Our Lives as Works of Art Spiral Beauty Back into the World	208	(12)
God as Mother, God as Child: Ourselves as Mothers of God and Birthers of God's Son	220	(9)
Sin, Salvation, Christ in the Perspective of the Via Creativa: A Theology of Resurrection	229	(21)
PATH IV BEFRIENDING NEW CREATION: COMPASSION, CELEBRATION, EROTIC JUSTICE, THE VIA TRANSFORMATIVA
The New Creation: Images of God in Motion Creating a Global Civilization	250	(7)
Faith as Trusting the Prophetic Call of the Holy Spirit	257	(8)
A Spirituality of the Anawim: Feminists, Third World, Lay, and Other Oppressed Peoples	265	(12)
Compassion: Interdependence, Celebration and the Recovery of Eros	277	(9)
Compassion: Interdependence and Erotic Justice	286	(7)
Sin, Salvation, Christ in the Perspective of the Via Transformativa: A Theology of the Holy Spirit	293	(14)
Appendix A: Toward a Family Tree of Creation-Centered Spirituality	307	(9)
Appendix B: Fall/Redemption and Creation-Centered Spiritualities Compared at a Glance	316	(5)
Appendix C: An Annotated Bibliography in Creation-Centered Spirituality	321	(7)
Additional Bibliography for the 2000 Edition	328	(7)
Notes	335	(22)
Index	357	(8)
Acknowledgments	365	(2)
About the Author	367