Matthew Fox's 1983 manifesto for what he called Creation Spirituality — a Christian theological project organised around the proposition that the foundational human reality is original blessing rather than original sin, and that the Christian mystical tradition (Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen) supports this reading more than the Augustinian-Thomist mainstream does. The book uses a "four paths" framework drawn from Eckhart: Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa, Via Transformativa.
Contents
Via Positiva: Befriending Creation
Via Negativa: Befriending Darkness, Letting Go, and Letting Be
Via Creativa: Befriending Creativity, Befriending Our God the Creator
Via Transformativa: Befriending New Creation, Compassion, and Justice
Reception
The book that defined Fox's career and that the Vatican found incompatible enough with Catholic doctrine to silence him for a year (1989) and ultimately to dismiss him from the Dominican Order (1993). Fox subsequently joined the Episcopal Church and continued teaching through the University of Creation Spirituality and Wisdom University. Inside ecological-theology and progressive-Christian circles the book is foundational; inside conservative Catholic theology it remains a reference example of what the magisterium considers theological overreach. Reception in academic religious studies has been generally sympathetic to the project of recovering Eckhart and Hildegard, more cautious about Fox's specific historical claims.
Frequently asked
What is Original Blessing about?
Original Blessing is Matthew Fox's theological manifesto arguing that the foundational human reality is original blessing — the goodness of creation — rather than original sin. Fox organises the book around four mystical paths drawn from Meister Eckhart: Via Positiva (befriending creation), Via Negativa (befriending darkness), Via Creativa (befriending creativity), and Via Transformativa (compassion and justice).
Why did the Vatican silence Matthew Fox after Original Blessing?
The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (under Cardinal Ratzinger) found Fox's Creation Spirituality framework incompatible with Catholic doctrine, particularly his de-emphasis of original sin and his perennialist integration of non-Christian sources. Fox was silenced for a year in 1989 and dismissed from the Dominican Order in 1993; he subsequently joined the Episcopal Church.
What role does Meister Eckhart play in Original Blessing?
Eckhart is the central Christian authority Fox invokes throughout the book. Fox argues that the medieval Dominican mystic's theology — with its emphasis on the goodness of creation and the immanence of God in the world — represents the Christian tradition's own counter-tradition to Augustinian original sin. The four-paths framework is structured around Eckhart's mystical vocabulary.