About Matthew Fox
“Matthew Fox might well be the most creative, the most comprehensive, surely the most challenging religious-spiritual teacher in America . He has the scholarship, the imagination, the courage, the writing skill to fulfill this role at a time when the more official Christian theological traditions are having difficulty in establishing any vital contact with either the spiritual possibilities of the present or with their own most creative spiritual traditions of the past….He has, it seems, created a new mythic context for leading us out of our contemporary religious and spiritual confusion into a new clarity of mind and peace of soul, by affirming rather than abandoning any of our traditional beliefs.”
Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work, The Dream of the Earth and The Universe Story
A Brief Biography
Matthew Fox is a spiritual theologian, an Episcopal priest and an activist. As a spiritual theologian he has written 30 books that have been translated into 43 languages and have received numerous awards. Among them are Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, A Spirituality Named Compassion, The Reinvention of Work, The Hidden Spirituality of Men and Christian Mystics. He has contributed much to the rediscovery of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and Thomas Aquinas as pre-modern mystics and prophets.
As an activist Fox’s interests have been the 
renewal of education and of religion. He established the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality that flourished for 21 years until Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) silenced Fox and eventually shut down the program and expelled Fox from the Dominican Order of which he had been a member for 34 years. Fox then founded his own University in downtown Oakland, the University of Creation Spirituality, which flourished for nine years. Now Fox is applying the same pedagogy to reinventing education from the inner city out by working with inner city teen agers, a pilot program having run two years in Oakland and having spawned three programs in Chicago.
In joining the Episcopal church 16 years ago, Fox has been working with young people to reinvent forms of worship by bringing elements of rave such as dance, dj, vj and more into the Western Liturgy. The Cosmic Mass has been celebrated over 90 times and in dozens of cities in North America. 
When Ratzinger became pope Fox went to Wittenburg and pounded 95 theses on the door to amplify the church’s need for reformation (See A New Reformation).
Fox is recipient of the Abbey Courage of Conscience Peace Award (other recipients being the Dali Lama, Mother Teresa, Ernesto Cardenal and Rosa Parks), the Ghandi King Ikeda Award, the Tikkun National Ethics Award and other awards. He is currently visiting scholar at the Academy of the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico and lives in Oakland, California.
Biography
Matthew Fox (b. 1940) is an internationally acclaimed theologian who was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He holds a doctorate, summa cum laude, in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Matthew Fox is author of 29 books that have been translated into 43 languages including Original Blessing; 
The Reinvention of Work; Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet; One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths; A Spirituality Named Compassion; The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; Prayer: A Radical Response to Life; A New Reformation; The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human; A New Reformation; The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors for Awakening the Sacred Masculine. In Fall, 2010, his latest book, Christian Mystics: 365 Meditations” will appear.
Seeking to establish a new pedagogy for learning spirituality that was grounded in an effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical traditions in such figures as Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas, as well as interacting with contemporary scientists who are also mystics, Fox founded the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality that operated for seven years at Mundelein College in Chicago and twelve years at Holy Names College in Oakland . 
For ten of those years at Holy Names College Cardinal Ratzinger, as chief Inquisitor and head of the Congregation of Doctrine and Faith (called the Office of the Holy Inquisition until 1965), tried to shut the program down. Ratzinger silenced Fox for one year in 1988 and forced him to step down as director. Three years later he expelled Fox from the Order thus terminating the program at Holy Names College.
Rather than disband his amazing and ecumenical faculty, Fox started his own University called University of Creation Spirituality where it thrived for nine years and closed in 2007. Fox has taught at Stanford University , Vancouver School of Theology, Association for Transpersonal Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies among other places. He is currently visiting scholar with the Academy for the Love of Learning headquartered in Santa Fe , New Mexico.
Matthew Fox has been renewing the ancient tradition of Creation Spirituality that was named for him by his mentor, the late Father Marie Dominic Chenu, o.p., in his studies in Paris . 
This tradition is feminist, welcoming of the arts and artists, wisdom centered, prophetic and committed to eco-justice, social justice and gender justice. Fox’s effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical tradition has included revivifying awareness of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas and the Cosmic Christ tradition as well as interacting with contemporary scientists who are also mystics. He has authored two books with British biologist Rupert Sheldrake. He has worked closely with Native American leaders such as Buck Ghosthorse and is currently working on a DVD and book project on “Mysticism East and West” with Lama Tsomo, a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and teacher.
Fox is a well received lecturer who has spoken at many professional and community gatherings on many continents and in many countries around the world. Fox’s books have received numerous awards and he is recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award 
of which other recipients have included the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks and Maya Angelou. He is also a recipient of the Ghandi-King-Ikeda Award from Morehouse College International Chapel that is awarded for dedication to peace, unity, non-violence and justice. He has led a renewal of liturgical forms with “The Cosmic Mass” that mixes dance, techno and live music, dj, vj, rap and contemporary art forms with the western liturgical tradition. Many people have been trained in celebrating these post-modern forms of worship. Canadian television filmed the Mass and ran it on prime time and 800,000 persons saw the presentation.
Fox believes that by “reinventing work, education and worship we can bring about a non-violent revolution on our planet” and has committed himself to this vision for many years. His book published in 2006 called The A.W.E. Project: An Educational Transformation for Post-Modern Times lays out the elements of an educational revolution for young people 
that is based on his 30 years of educating adults with an alternative pedagogy based on cosmology, creativity and contemplation. Fox is currently implementing this project for inner city teenagers in Oakland called YELLAWE: “Youth and Elder Learning Laboratory for Ancestral Wisdom Education.” The goal is to reinvent education from the inner city out. Offshoots from this project have now taken root in Chicago. Fox resides in Oakland , California.
In 2005, when Cardinal Ratzinger was made pope, Fox went to Martin Luther’s church in Wittenburg , Germany and pounded 95 contemporary theses at the door to call people to a New Reformation. Knowing Ratzinger well from a protracted battle with him over the years in his role as chief inquisitor of our day, he wanted to alert people to what the future held. That future has very much arrived.
Media Exposure for Matthew Fox has included the following: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, 
People Magazine, Yoga Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, Capitol Times, New Age Journal, Utne Reader, Spirituality and Health, Tikkun, Science of Mind, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Tribune, Toronto Star, San Francisco Weekly, East Bay Times, Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, Resurgence, The Tablet, The Independent (London), The Guardian, YES! Magazine, Caduceus Journal and the Today Show with Bryant Gumbel; BBC and Brazilian and Canadian television.
See www.MatthewFox.org; and also: www.yellawe.org
For inquiries about lectures contact: 33dennis@sbcglobal.net. or call: 510-835-0655.
AWARDS:
2003: The Nautilus Award honoring distinguished literary contribution to conscious living and positive social change.
2002: The Ghandi King Ikeda Award
in recognition of service to community and the world through dedication to peace and unity, commitment to non-violence, and persistent efforts to establish justice for all humankind.
2000: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from The University College of Cape Breton, Sydney, Nova Scotia , Canada .
1997: The Body Mind Spirit Award of Excellence for outstanding books in print for Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest.
1996: The Body Mind Spirit Award of Excellence for outstanding books in print for The Reinvention of Work
1996: The Tikkun National Ethics Award in recognition of contributions made to the spiritual life of our society.
1995: The Courage of Conscience Award by the Peace Abbey of Sherborn , Mass. Other recipients of this award include the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Ernesto Cardenal, and Rosa Parks.
1994: New York Open Center Tenth Anniversary Award for Achievement in Creative Spirituality
