Don’t Just Read Occupy Spirituality – Live It!

September 23, 2013 By Matthew Fox

We’d like to thank Christine Kraemer, Jim Burklo, Bruce Epperly, Carl Gregg, Chris Henrichsen and Frank Viola for taking the time to offer their thoughtful reviews on the Occupy Spirituality book club, and particularly for speaking so authentically to the ways in which the book resonated (or didn’t resonate) with their personal spiritual experience. These reviews are an eloquent part of a growing conversation of commentaries from all points on the spiritual spectrum…we’ve included just a few on Matthew Fox’s site. For... Read more

The Difference Between Religion and Spirituality

September 20, 2013 By Matthew Fox

While the Christ Path blog goes through a re-visioning process, we will be sharing some of the thought-provoking videos and articles being published about Occupy Spirituality on the newly-launched Book Club…like Deborah Arca’s interview with Matthew Fox, for example… (snip) DB ….As you were listening to these young people, and as you know from your own experience, the interspiritual is very important too: that younger people are less concerned about following the doctrines, and less concerned about doctrines in general,... Read more

Occupy Spirituality: Creating Communities in the Service of Life

September 16, 2013 By Matthew Fox

And so we reach the last of our excerpts from Occupy Spirituality exploring the ways in which the Occupy Generation is redefining spirituality and sacred activism for our time. Out of these young visionary prophets’ passionate and compassionate spiritual practices is evolving a sacred community…the legacy of the Beloved Community of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision. An Excerpt from Chapter 2 of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, published by... Read more

Occupy Spirituality: Redefining Leadership as Dynamic, Democratic and Authentic

September 13, 2013 By Matthew Fox

As we’ve interviewed the young people of the Occupy generation, we’ve witnessed them giving birth to an embodied spirituality that deeply values authenticity…balances concept and experience… combines creativity and compassion with a passion for justice…celebrates unity within diversity…and practices joy, fun and the fullness of life. This post and the next look at the ways in which these young visionaries are structuring a new society: redefining the role of spiritual leadership and the role of spirituality in community. An Excerpt... Read more

Spirituality: Where Seriousness and Playfulness Meet

September 11, 2013 By Matthew Fox

We’ve looked at passion, practice, prophecy and purpose – all elements of the spirituality that we’ve witnessed in our interviews with 20- and 30-something members of the Occupy Generation. Some readers have asked – how do these patterns and practices differ from those of New Age spirituality, or the embodied interspiritual practices that are shared today across the population, from teens to elder Boomers? Our answer: For one thing, they very much include the shadow–both personal and social–while New Age... Read more

Spirituality Combined with A Call to Action

September 6, 2013 By Matthew Fox

For many fundamentalists, religious practice revolves around one inward-looking question: Am I saved? As the world has witnessed, however, the Occupy Generation takes their embodied spirituality in the opposite direction, eliminating the division between the sacred and mundane, and blending spiritual vocation with career and public activism. Our dialogue continues with the fourth pattern we’ve seen in our conversations with today’s generation of mystic prophets: An Excerpt from Chapter 2 of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation... Read more

Occupy Spirituality: A Dance between Body, Mind and Soul

September 4, 2013 By Matthew Fox

If the spirituality of the Occupy Generation as an ongoing dialogue between experience and concept – what is the nature of that experience? How is it grounded in daily practice? From our intensive conversations with many young people, we gained an exciting picture of solidly practical, embodied, and yet deeply mystical spirituality. An Excerpt from Chapter 2 of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright ©... Read more

Faith in the Occupy Generation: Balancing Concept and Experience

September 2, 2013 By Matthew Fox

We started this series of posts by looking at the first of seven themes that we’ve seen in our intensive interviews with many of the coming generation’s evolving mystics and prophets. We witnessed the deeply ecumenical nature of the Occupy generation’s evolving spirituality…a spirituality that we feel will become the template for faith in the 21st century, moving away from the forms of institutional religion to embrace the one underlying reality at the root of all faith traditions. The second... Read more

Bypassing Institution for Essence: Young People Seek a More Authentic Spirituality

August 30, 2013 By Matthew Fox

What is the spirituality of the younger generation? Are they falling away from God as they leave the churches, or are they discovering – and creating – a new form of spirituality, one that goes back to the mystical roots of the Church? As we interviewed a wide range of young people in our research for Occupy Spirituality, we found them to be intensely spiritual as mystic activists, with seven common themes showing up among their beliefs and practices. We’ll... Read more

Do You Dare to Stand Near to Jesus – Near to the Fire?

August 28, 2013 By Andrew Harvey

We are continuing our exploration of the Gospel of Thomas with logion 82, where Jesus says: “She who is near to Me is near to the fire.” He knew that what He discovered on behalf of the whole of humanity was a terrible fire, a fire of purifying, excruciating, glorious, tremendous love power. He knew that anybody who joined His path would have to go through enormous struggles and ordeals, because He Himself had been through these struggles and ordeals.... Read more