One River, Many Wells Book

Who but Matthew Fox--former Dominican priest and author of countless influential books such as Original Blessing and The Reinvention of Work, who was silenced by the Vatican for his controversial statements about Creation Spirituality, and today an Episcopal priest--would combine rave dance with religious Mass? And who else would now attempt such a distillation of the world's religions as this book brings us? Combining writings from a breadth of spiritual traditions, Fox employs the idea of "Deep Ecumenism" which he has explored in a series of books going back to The Coming of the Cosmic Christ in 1989. Fox focuses on four categories of spiritual inquiry: how we relate to creation, to divinity, to ourselves and how we relate to the future. He sees these categories flowing through all spiritual tradition. One section explores issues of service and compassion, justice and "spiritual warriorhood." Others discuss meditation, art, ritual and sexuality. Foxconcludes with "18 New Myths and Visions" whichsummarises his central message. Simplicity and clarity are the goals of this book, and to achieve this, Fox weaves his own terse commentary through a series of quotations drawn from a myriad traditions. While the author may be criticised by some for making easy connections between traditions, the book well serves its purpose as a kind of primer for Deep Ecumenism. It will be especially useful for those new to such ideas, and to those who might otherwise never have met Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich, Hafiz, and the Sufi Ibn Arabi--not to mention Thomas Aquinas, physicist Werner Heisenberg, and geologist Thomas Berry--all sharing each other's company. --Doug ThorpeRead More