MJT 9/1 (1993) 124-141
ENVIRONMENT AS RELIGION: MATTHEW FOX'S CREATION SPIRITUALITY AS A PARADIGM FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS1
NELSON D. KLOOSTERMAN
Matthew Fox is a Catholic priest and former member of the Dominican order, the founder and director of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, located on the campus of Holy Names College in Oakland, California. Among the books in which he articulates what is described as "creation-centered spirituality," the following are most important: A Spirituality Named Compassion (1979; new introduction 1990); Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality (1983); The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance (1988); and Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth (1991). My interest in Fox's brand of creation spirituality arose at the point where my explorations regarding the relationship of ethics to spirituality converged with my reflection on the relationship of environmental ethics to worldview.2 What arrested me at this point was Fox's claim that "creation spirituality makes a primary contribution to the struggle for world peace and justice by offering a paradigm shift."3 He introduces the matter in Original Blessing by insisting that we need a new religious paradigm to guide us in our quest for survival, and that
A paper presented at The Willard Environmental Ethics Symposium, 15 April 1993 at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. 2 See Nelson D. Kloosterman, "Christian Ascetics in the Theological Curriculum: An Apologia," Mid-America Journal of Theology 1 (Fall 1985): 133-141; and Nelson D. Kloosterman, "Studying Spirituality in a Reformed Seminary: A Calvinist Model," MidAmerica Journal ofTlieology 6 (Fall 1990): 125-137. ^Matthew Fox, "Creation Spirituality: A Personal Retrospective," Listening 24 (Spring 1989): 134. Elsewhere Fox states: Re-visioning our religious heritage so that it truly honors the soil as a divine locus and teaches humans the importance of recovering a mystical relationship to it strikes me as something well worth doing. We can change our religious rituals so that they empower us to both appreciate the earth and defend it creatively against abuse. Such changes in our religious and spiritual paradigms are a significant step in the redemption of the earth (Creation Spirituality [San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 26).