Matthew Fox was a member of the Dominican order for thirty-four years. He holds a doctorate (received summa cum laude) in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Seeking to establish a pedagogy that was friendly to learning spirituality, he established the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, which operated for seven years at Mundelein College in Chicago and twelve years at Holy Names College in Oakland, California. For ten of those years at Holy Names College, Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), as the Catholic Church’s chief inquisitor and head of the Congregation of Doctrine and Faith, 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 and the program was aborted. Rather than disband his amazing ecumenical faculty, Fox started the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, where he was president for nine years.
He is currently a visiting scholar with the Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is working with others to create a new educational experience for inner-city youth called YELLAWE (Youth and Elder Learning Laboratory for Ancestral Wisdom Education) and new ritual experiences through the Cosmic Mass (www.thecosmicmass.com). He lectures, teaches, writes, and serves as president of the nonprofit he created in 1984, Friends of Creation Spirituality. He is the author of thirty books and lives in Oakland, California. His website is www.matthewfox.org.
David Van Nuys, PhD
Creator/Host of Shrink Rap Radio
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