Matthew Fox
Abstract
Prologue
The coming together of the historical Jesus and the Cosmic Christ will make Christianity whole at last. Christianity has been out of touch with its “core”. Its centre, its sense of mystical practice and cosmic awareness. It is almost as weary and depressed as our civilisation is.
Part I
A Dream “Your Mother is Dying - A Crucifixion Story for Our times
The earth is at the same time mother. She is mother of all that is natural, mother of all that is human. She is the mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all. Hildegard of Bingen
1. Mother Earth is Dying
There are approximately ten million species if living things with whom we share this planet, These creatures range from fishes and porpoises to ashes and rose bushes to coyotes and lions, to dogs, cats, and humans. The human is only one of these species, and, indeed, among the most recent.
Species as a whole have a life cycle – they are born and they eventually die. In te ordinary course of events one species disappears about every two thousand years. Currently, however, species are disappearing at the rate of one every twenty five minutes
If current rates of destruction continue, within the next one hundred years there will be no living species left on this planet – including humankind, since we are totally interdependent with all these other creatures.
2. The Mystical Brain is Dying
A crucial dimension of the unbalance in the West is the underdevelopment of our mystical brain. Our brains are amazingly complex creations of time, nature, and divinity.
Ours is a time of emerging awareness of the interconnectivity of all things. Mysticism is about interconnectivity, thus ours is a mystical time.
3. Creativity is Dying
If the divine power of imagination within us all is not tapped for its beauty and surprise, ecstasy and possibilities, it will degenerate into self-loathing, self-contempt and violence toward self or others.
This feeling of powerlessness is overtaking our times. From it comes despair, and despair conceals apathy. Apathy is not a lack of interest or caring, but the cover up we create when powerless overwhelms us.
4. Wisdom is Dying
Wisdom demands a cosmology, a returning to the whole, a healing of the whole when it is broken, a passion for the whole. Wisdom is playful and erotic. Where eros and play are dying, cosmos and earth are also dying, And so too is mother wisdom.
5. The Youth are Dying
Adults set the economic, moral, educational, worship, and work agendas. To the extent that adults are out of touch with the child in them this agenda creates a false self and an unbalanced society.
A tired, pessimistic, patriarchal, adultist culture has projected its own weariness and exhaustion onto divinity – and then we wonder why the youth are dying.
6. Native People, Their Religions, and Culture are Dying
Our failure to celebrate the pleasures of the Divine Presence where we are on Mother Earth creates a compulsion to conquer and achieve pleasure elsewhere.
By contrast the bush people of Africa do not feel the same cosmic loneliness, the staggering loss of identity and meaning that we in the modern world experience. Wherever they go they feel they are known, because they see the world as a family, including the cosmos and all of creation.
7. Mother Church is Dying
Fundamentalism is the result of a deep seated fear triggered by the breakup of cultural patterns. Power struggles, not mutual love, support, and solidarity characterise such systems.
Sadomasochism substitutes for morality; control for prayer; moralising and condemnation for play and celebration; and self-centredness and preoccupation with rules for cosmic adventure, interest, wonder, and living ritual.
8. Mother Love (Compassion) is Dying
Religion and culture that represses and distorts the maternal will also repress the ancient tradition of God as Mother and of the goddess in every person.
True redemption is always about compassion – an awakening of passion with God and all God;s creation and children, especially the suffering ones.
9. Our Mother is Dying, but Not Dead
Matricide – the killing of the mother principle – is being committed against Mother Earth, mother brain and mother community; against mother religions and mother wisdom; against youth, against mother church, and compassion. He believes that the answer lies in a deep mystical awakening that is truly planetary, that draws out the wisdom and the mystic from the wisdom traditions of all religions and cultures.
For humans to be part of the peace process, to cease being warriors against Mother Earth, a great awakening will take place. And that awakening will be an awakening in our mystical consciousness.
Part II
Mysticism – A Resurrection Story for Our Times
Everything is full and pure at its source and precisely there, not outside.
Meister Eckhard
How wonderful is the wisdom in the Godhead’s heart.
It is the heart that sees the primordial eternity of every creature.
Hildegard of Bingen
10. The Etymology of Mysticism
The creation-centred tradition backs up the primal sacrament, the primal mystery that is the universe itself. It calls for a spiritual awakening to the mystery of the universe and our existence in it. Reentering that mystery is a fundamentally holy act, a sacred discipline.
11. The Denial of the Mystic
A civilization that denies the mystic is no civilization at all. It offers no hope and no adventure, no challenge worthy of sacrifice, no living ritual to its people. And no deep healing.
12. The Rise of Pseudo-Mysticism
Jesus warned his disciples about false prophets, and so too it is necessary to be mindful of false mystics and false movements that come disguised in mystical trappings. The test for authentic mysticism is justice making and compassion, as Jesus taught. Among the pseudo-mysticisms are: Nationalism, Militarism, Fascism, Technology, Consumerism, Fundamentalism, New Ageism.
13.Twenty-one Running, Working, Experimental Definitions of Mysticism
The purpose of defining mysticism here is to elicit the mystic within each person.
- EXPERIENCE. The mystic is keen on the experience of the Divine and will not settle for theory alone or knowing about the Divine.
- NONDUALISM. What all mystical experiences have in common is this experience of nonseparation, of nondualism.
- COMPASSION. Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all living beings which are all part of one another and involved in one another.
- CONNECTION MAKING. Not only is mysticism about experiencing unity and nondualisn, it is also about making umity and making connection where connections have been lost, forgotten, or covered up.
- RADICAL AMAZEMENT. The mystic in us is the one moved to radical amazement by the awe of things. Awe is the beginning of wisdom, and awe precedes faith.
- AFFIRMATION OF THE WORLD AS A WHOLE. The mystic is neither neutral, nor bitter or cynical toward the world. The mystic has taken in enough of the blessing of the world to be radically amazed by it, and therefore to affirm it.
- RIGHT BRAIN. The right lobe of the brain us primarily responsible for synthesis, for connection making, for experiences of the whole.
- SELF CRITICAL The mystic is willing to undertake a critical examination of the self and to refrain from projecting the dark, unexamined shadows lurking in the self onto others.
- HEART KNOWLEDGE. The mystic gradually learns ways of awakening the heath, strengthening it, expanding it, watering it, and enabling it to reach its full, cosmic potential for joy.
- RETURN TO THE SOURCE. When we do that, we derive a living energy for our work and recover our work as an expression of our truest self and our deepest being.
- FEMINIST. People who see the world in this way will practice values of interdependence and communion rather than dualism; of celebration and delight rather than competition; of celebration and delight rather than competition; of compassion rather than legalism; of nurturance rather than judgement.
- PANENTHEISTIC. Panentheism means “all things in God and God in all things. This is the way mystics envision the relationship of world, self, and God.
- BIRTHING IMAGES. Rebirth occurs through the generation of new images, for images are closer to our experience than words.
- SILENCE. While the mystic is passionate about imaging and sensitive to language, its death and possibilities for rebirth, the mystic is also a befriender of silence. The power from which the dance or the painting or the music or the struggle or the love or the love making comes is silence.
- NOTHINGNESS AND DARKNESS. The mystic has plunged into the darkness and has tasted nothingness itself. Mysticism not only takes one into the awe of what we see in the light of day, but also into the depths of what we see – or fail to see – in the dark.
- CHILDLIKE PLAYFULNESS. A mystic is a child at play – and the mystic within is the child within us. It can be defined as unselfconsciousness.
- PSYCHIC JUSTICE. Mysticism brings justice – harmony and balance – back to our brain, bodies, and psyches.
- PROPHETIC. The prophet is one who interfered with injustice. Thus, the mystic is invariably dangerous and always in trouble; the mystic is prophetic.
- BEING-WITH-BEING. One of the gifts mysticism brings to the prophetic struggle is a rooting of the struggle not at the superficial levels of righteousness or guilt or compulsion or winning but at the level of being.
- TRUE SELF. The mystic in us, by ever exploring depths of one’s experiences – whether of light or of darkness, of joy or suffering- is unleashing and creating the inner person, the true self. The birth of the mystic is a birth with God of what is divine and truly oneself.
- GLOBALLY ECUMENICAL Without mysticism there will be no “deep ecumenism”, no unleashing of the power of wisdom from all the world’s religious traditions. there will never be global peace or justice since the human race needs spiritual depths and disciplines, celebrations and rituals, to awaken its better selves.
There are tests we can put to mystical claims to discern whether they are authentic or bogus. These are: ‘oneing’, intellectual life, paradox and humour, fertility, unselfconsciousness, dialectical consciousness, and experience of the Cosmic Christ in all things.
14. The Historical Jesus as Mystic and Teacher of Mysticism
Jesus was a mystic in the fullest sense of the term because he lived the mystery of his relationship with the Creator and taught others to do the same.
Jesus teaches his disciples to be intimate with the Father, to pray “our Father”, and to experience nondualism. He invites his followers to embrace their divinity by calling them to exercise the divine power of compassion.
Part III
From the Quest for the Historical Jesus to the Quest for the Cosmic Christ – A Paradigm Shift for Western Religion
It is God whom human beings know in every creature.
Hildegard of Bingen
Each creature is a witness to God’s power and omnipotence; and its beauty is a witness to the divine wisdom.... Every creature participates in some way in the likeness oof the Divine Essence.
Thomas Aquinas
The holy trinity of science (knowledge of creation), mysticism (experiential union with creation and its unnameable mysteries), and art (expression of our awe at creation) is what constitutes a living cosmology.
15. The Quest for the Cosmic Christ – A Paradigm Shift
Mother Earth, wisdom literature of the Bible, science, art, mysticism and the Cosmic Christ – these may, with a new paradigm, become the archetypes of scientific achievement.
Does the Cosmic Christ represent a true second coming, an ushering in of a spiritual and cultural renaissance tat can heal the most poignant and urgent pain of our time – the crucifixion of Mother earth?
16. Biblical Sources for Belief in the Cosmic Christ
By returning to our sources, we gain an impetus for and an understanding about the rich doctrine of the Cosmic Christ that Christianity had largely hidden for centuries.
THE COSMIC CHRIST IN ISRAEL
PREEXISTENT WISDOM. Preexistent wisdom is celebrated in Israel on numerous occasions. Wisdom “pervades and permeates all things”, She is “a breath of the power of God and a reflection of the eternal light, untarnished mirror of God’s active power, image of his goodness”.
THE PROPHETS. What concerns the prophet is the human event as a divine experience. “Am I a God close at hand, and not a God far off? ... Can anyone hide oneself in secret places where I shall not see them? Do I not fill heaven and earth?”.
The fact that Jesus saw himself in the prophetic tradition made it natural for his followers to understand him as the Cosmic Christ, the one “annointed ... to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the
Lord’s year of favor.”
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. Apocalyptic literature is steeped in angelology and in visions of cosmic happenings. Angels always denote a cosmology because they were “put in charge of the cosmic order”.
NEW TESTAMENT HYMNS
PHILIPPIANS. “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” The motif is of incarnation and exaltation, with a call to compassionate behaviour.
ROMANS. Christ is celebrated as the perfect image of God, the second and “better: Adam ans yet as a sibling to all other humans who are also images of God.
The Cosmic Christ is fully grounded in a history, in a people, in flesh and blood.
COLOSSIANS. We are exhorted to “lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to that one, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”.
EPHESIANS. Christ is pictured as a cosmic ruler. “God has put all things under Christ’s feet and has made Christ the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all in all”.
HEBREWS. Jesus as priest is the Cosmic Christ who reconciles all creation in God by healing the human consciousness that has been at war with creation. Jesus’ death is a sin offering that wiped out all sin and thereby initiated a new covenant.
JOHN. John describes a new creation story, one which echoes the creation story of Genesis in its opening words “In the beginning”. “The Word is with God”, as wisdom is.
THE REVELATION TO JOHN. Final salvation does not just pertain to the soul and spiritual realities. It is the abolishment of all dehumanisation and suffering and at the same time the fullness of human well-being.
COSMIC CHRIST THEMES IN THE GOSPELS AND ACTS
INFANCY NARRATIVES. When the birth occurs, a cosmic symphony ensues. “And suddenly there was with the angel a great throng of the heavenly host, praising God and singing ‘Glory to God in the highest heavens, and peace to persons who enjoy God’s favor.’ “
JESUS’ BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION IN THE DESERT. “The heavens were torn apart and the spirit, like a dove, descended on him. And a voice cans from heave ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you!’ “
Jesus’ temptation in the desert is set in a cosmological context. “The Spirit drove him into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts and the angels looked after him.”
THE TRANSFIGURATION. This celebrates the historical Jesus who is finally recognised by his disciples through the transfiguration event as the Cosmic Christ.
THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION. An important dimension of the resurrection story is the appearance of the risen Jesus. The disciples said they had seen the “risen Lord”. Jesus is no longer simply Jesus, but “Lord”, a cosmic identification.
THE ASCENSION. The exaltation of Jesus as the Cosmic Christ is part of that dimension of the resurrection story that we call Christ’s ascension.
PENTECOST. The sending of the spirit is a cosmic event. The breathing forth of the Spirit from Jesus is key to both the resurrection and ascension stories. A new creation is implicit in the sending of the Spirit, the One Spirit who hovered over the waters at the first creation,
17. The Cosmic Christ and Creation Mystics – The Greek Fathers
We have in the fourth century a cosmological theology, and therefore a Cosmic Christ.
18. The Cosmic Christ and Creation Mystics – The Medieval West
The creation-centered mystics of the Middle Ages in the West celebrated the Cosmic Christ with vigour.
HILDEGARD OF BINGEN. Hildegard of Bingen placed her entire theology in a cosmological setting. Her ideas about the universe as well as her method of thinking and sharing these ideas are cosmologically orientated.
She composed a series of songs in which she expressed musically and poetically her experience of the Cosmic Christ.
“It is God whom human beings know in every creature”, she wrote.
She said that Christ was the “Word” of God, because “by the sound of his voice the entire creation was awakened and called to itself.’
FRANCIS OF ASSISI. Francis acknowledges and celebrates divinity in its creative and creaturely manifestation. The divine is incarnated in the flesh of nature.
He celebrates the power in humans to forgive, to endure suffering, to be instruments of peace.
THOMAS AQUINAS. The Cosmic Christ is both expressive and creative of the universe.
Every creature is a “witness to God insofar as each creature is a witness to God’s power and omnipotence; and its beauty is a witness to the divine wisdom.”
MECHTILD OF MAGDEBURG. Mechtild developed a spirituality of the cosmic Christ in imaginative and practical depth.
She describes how every human is a bearer of the Cosmic Christ.
Mechtild wakes up to see God “all in all”. “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things,”
She concludes that to experience the Cosmic Christ is to become an instrument of divine compassion.
DANTE ALIGHIERI. His poem The Divine Comedy can be described as an experience of the Cosmic Christ in art. The purpose of creation is to awaken the divine “I am”, the Cosmic Christ, in all creatures.
He tells us that “my desire and my will were turning in harmony like a wheel that is moved evenly by the Love that moves the universe.”
MEISTER ECKHART. Eckhart writes “In this Word the Creator speaks my spirit, your spirit, and the spirit of every person who resembles the Word. And in this utterance you and I are true sons and daughters of God, as the Word itself is child of the Creator.”
Persons are called to be the mystic and prophet that Jesus was, each in our her way.
But it is not enough that we experience the Cosmic Christ in self and others – we are also to birth the Cosmic Christ.
JULIAN OF NORWICH. Julian writes, “In my understanding I saw God in a point. In seeing this I saw that God is in all things. God works in creatures because God is in the mid-point of everything,”
Also “See! I am God. See! I am in everything. See! I lead everything toward the purpose for which I ordained it...How could anything be amiss?”
NICHOLAS OF CUSA. Wisdom is eternal, for it precedes every beginning and all created reality. Wisdom is the “animating power of things”.
Cusa sees the face of God revealed in the mirror or divine image that each creature is. When we gaze on one another we gaze on the Cosmic Christ.
19. Scripture, tradition, and the Cosmic Christianity
When a living cosmology is lost, as happened with the Enlightenment, there is no need of a Cosmic Christ. But when a living cosmology emerges again, as in our tie, we depend on the wisdom of our ancestors in faith who developed an understanding and experience of the Cosmic Christ at the very heart of their mysticism,
Part IV
Who is the Cosmic Christ?
In Christ were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and invisible....Before anything was created, Christ existed, and Christ holds all things in unity.
Col. 1:15-17
Who is a holy person? The one who is aware of others’ suffering?
Kabir
20. Naming the Cosmic Christ
We can consider the various meanings of the term Cosmic Christ.
THE COSMIC CHRIST – CREATOR OF MINDFULNESS
The Cosmic Christ awakens mindfulness, awakening people to experience divinity around and through them.
When science and mysticism interpenetrate, new visions can be born. A renaissance happens not from outside in but from inside out. The soul stirs. And new images are born. And lived out.
THE COSMIC CHRIST – THE PATTERN THAT CONNECTS
The Cosmic Christ personalises the experience of the “pattern that connects”.
It grounds this connection in the cosmic experience of both the joy and the suffering of the historical Jesus.
This leads to a connection between our moral behaviour, and our knowledge and love of the universe.
THE COSMIC CHRIST – BEARER OF COHERENCE
The Cosmic Christ ushers in an era of coherence, of ending the separation and division that characterises a world without mysticism, and without a living cosmology.
A cosmos is always a whole, a unity, even if the coherence exists only in the hearts and imaginations of the people, only in hope.
THE COSMIC CHRIST NEEDING TO BE BORN
There is a sense that the Cosmic Christ has not been born yet, and has not come to full birth, at least not on the mass scale that Mother Earth requires.
We are are called, like the Cosmic Christ, to radiate divine presence with one another.
JESUS AS THE COSMIC CHRIST – ONE BIRTH, ONE DEATH, ONE WORK
The awakening is essential because so many of us are asleep and as good as dead. It is Jesus who raises us from the dead, who arouses us from our slumber, who wakens and excites us to new life. All creatures bear the image of the Cosmic Christ though many do now know it. Humans, however, bear both the image and likeness of the Cosmic Christ, for they are capable of the creativity that is unique to God.
THE COSMIC CHRIST – CONNECTOR OF TIME AND SPACE
Our dawning awareness of evolution and our gradual appreciation of the vast distances of time fill us with awe at the mystery of our origins.
Our space-full moments are precious and memorable, and they are the grounding point for morality and decision making.
One distortion occurs with the New Age movement, which is all space and no time; all consciousness and no conscience; all mysticism and no prophesy; all past life experiences and bliss and no acknowledgement of suffering.
Another distortion occurs among good intentioned persons who work intensely for peace and justice, while being cut off from mysticism, and who suffer from burnout, pessimism and lack of creativity.
THE COSMIC CHRIST – CONNECTOR OF MICROCOSM AND MACROCOSM
Another connection is between the tiny and the magnificent, between the microcosm and the macrocosm.
This assures us that nothing is trivial, for nothing is unconnected to the whole.
21. Jesus Christ as Mother Earth Crucified and Resurrected
The killing of Mother Earth in our time is the number one ethical, spiritual and human issue of our planet. Mother Earth is being crucified in our time.
It is the children, the generations to come, who will suffer most from the devastation of the planet’s beauty and fruitfulness.
22. A Paschal Mystery for the Third Millennium of Christianity
The Easter mystery takes on a new power when we understand it as the passion, resurrection and ascension of Mother Earth conceived as Jesus crucified, resurrected and ascended.
Each meal we eat is like a “farewell meal” of Mother Earth, since, when we eat, we always eat Mother Earth.
23. Redeeming Redemption – The Cosmic Christ as Redeemer of Cosmic Pain
In a world of interdependence there is no such thing as private salvation. Salvation must be universal, or it is not salvation at all.
Since pain, suffering, and sin are cosmic – bigger than we can control or imagine – the redemption must be cosmic as well.
The Cosmic Christ unites all this pain in the one divine heart, in the one divine – but wounded – body of Christ which is the body of the universe.
24. The Cosmic Christ – Revealer of the Divine “I Am” in Every Creature
One of the themes in Cosmic Christ theology is a celebration of how common and omnipresent divinity is. The Cosmic Christ is the “I am” in every creature.
To experience compassion and to identify with the suffering of others – as well as with their joy - is to experience the Divine One who suffers and rejoices in each person.
Part V
A Vision of the Second Coming – The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
What has been passing for Christianity during these nineteen centuries is merely a beginning, full of weaknesses and mistakes, not a full-grown Christianity springing from the spirit of
Jesus.
Albert Schweitzer
Erotic energy is the eternal source of creativity.
Nicolas Berdyaev
Is our civilisation dead, or is something new possible – a new vision, a new paradigm, a new wisdom, a new civilisation?
With a resurrection in our spirits, our hopes, and our imaginations will come a renaissance in culture and religion that will in turn will contribute to the resurrection of Mother Earth.
25. The Cosmic Christ and a Renaissance of Sexual Mysticism
There is another tradition, the tradition of praise. It is time that the voice of the churches joined the voices of the other creatures to praise the Creator for the surprising and imaginative gift of our sexuality. A living cosmology can and will elicit this praise.
SEXUAL MYSTICISM IN THE SONG OF SONGS
She has a sense of her beauty, her personhood, her royalty, her original blessing. Because of this she can praise the beauty in her beloved.
But deep love creates deep vulnerability. An opened heart is opened as much to suffering as to love. The wounds of the Cosmic Christ as well as the radiance of the divine are encountered in love.
Love also raises the specter of its cosmological counterpart, death.
THE COSMIC CHRIST SPEAKS ON SEXUALITY
Art as meditation teaches us to value processes – the arts of friendship and conversation; or laughter and conviviality; the great art of creating relationships and creating lifestyle in modes of mutuality.
God is always deeply present in the everyday events of out lives which we enter into fully.
26. Honoring the Child Within – Youth and the Cosmic Christianity
How are we treating our young? Are we preparing them to love life? Are we offering them skills and disciplines for education, for sacrifice, for great visions to which they can give themselves?
ADULTISM – A SOCIETY THAT DEVOURS ITS YOUTH
A loss of reverence for life is at issue among our young. Where does one learn reverence for one’s own divinity, one’s own beauty, ones own glory, and for the Cosmic Christ that one is, if not from the adults?
The youth are paying a tremendous and painful price for our current civilisation.
CHRISTOS OR CHRONOS
Chronos – the ultimate consumer and ultimate waster – is the God of Western civilisation, encouraging us in our consumption and waste of youth, of Mother Earth, of minorities, of imagination, of mysticism.
The alternative is the Cosmic Christ, Christos. Instead of consuming, Christos loves his children, and is sacrificed for them.
This God blesses the young, uses them as examples of wisdom for elders and teaches people to be young like God is.
PUER AND SENEX – THE PUER AS A PROPHET TO A TIRED CIVILIZATION
Another name fort the god Chronos is Senex, which is the archetype of the senator, the wise old man. In tension with the Senex is the Puer archetype, the child, the youth, the mystic within us all. In a healthy culture both senex and puer operate together.
The puer’s sense of adventure and living in the now seeks a balance from from the adult struggle of responsibility and commitment.
Without the puer alive in us there would be no spiritual drive, no new sparks, no going beyond the given, no grandeur and no sense of personal destiny.
THE COSMIC CHRIST SPEAKS ON YOUTH
The Cosmic Christ speaks “I am eternal youth. I am always young, always new, always fresh, always eager, always in the beginning.”
27. The Cosmic Christ and Creativity – The Return of the Personal Arts
There is no renaissance without a vast outburst of creativity – new images, new risk taking, new relationships, new dreams and new vision.
AWAKENING THE ARTIST
The artist’s task is awakening awe and providing vehicles of expression so that we can express our awe and wonder at existence. There is an artist in each of us, and so the artists’s task belongs to each of us.
FOLK AND PERSONAL ARTS AND THE REINVENTION OF THE HUMAN
The personal arts include the arts of listening and of healing; of enjoying oneself with others in simple ways; the art of creating lifestyles and communities; the art of conviviality; the art of parenting and of forgiving,
PLAY, CREATIVITY, AND THE COSMIC CHRIST
Our play is not only prayer and art as a meditation, but also the expression of our role in the universe.
Our co-creation is a display and revelation of the divine essence.
THE VIRTUE OF CREATIVITY
Creativity is a moral virtue. It is the source of empowerment in an era of the Cosmic Christ.
Every individual, and also our institutions, will need to acknowledge and enhance creativity as a fundamental law.
CREATIVITY – A VOW FOR THE NEW SPIRITUAL ERA
We need a new vow, a promise to creativity itself: a promise to remain creative, to endure creativity, to commit ourselves to it as individuals and communities.
CREATING WORK
The new cosmology teaches that the world is not a machine bur a mystery, and therefore those who lead others more deeply into the mysteries are the primary workers of the emerging culture.
We live in the world we create for ourselves. If we deserve better that we have, then we must birth it from our souls.
CREATING LIFESTYLES
A lifestyle is an art form. It brings life and wonder, joy and hope to persons otherwise condemned to superficial living. Our times call for the creation of lifestyles of spiritual substance.
EDUCATION – EDUCING THE COSMIC CHRIST
Students and adult learners need to be empowered as artists by way of art as a process.
Art will revitalise education. In classrooms ecstasy will replace boredom.
Persons in prisons and institutions will also profit, and a peace will prevail.
BERDYAEV ON CREATIVITY AND THE NEW SPIRITUAL ERA
God expects free, and therefore creative, acts.
The Cosmic Christ ushers in a new era, one that connects the divine power of creativity with the human power of co-creation.
THE COSMIC CHRIST SPEAKS ON CREATIVITY
We are challenged to embrace our powers of creativity: “Do not hide your light, your divine creative powers, under a bushel.”
28. The Cosmic Christ – Redeemer of Worship
Living worship, based on a living cosmology, creates a people and heals a people; it celebrates a people and their place in the universe. It enkindles kinship with God, and the creatures of the universe.
SIX STEPS TO REDEEMING WORSHIP IN THE WEST
- Reset all of worship in a cosmological context
- Bring the body back
- Bring play back
- Make room for darkness, silence, suffering
- Awaken and nurture the prophet
- Bring participation back.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM NATIVE WORSHIP
- Worship without sacrifice is a sin
- Gratitude is what motivates us
- Bravery and heroism are important
- Community is a necessary participates
- The Cosmic Christ is present in many forms.
THE COSMIC CHRIST SPEAKS ON WORSHIP
“Come to me all you who are burdened by lack of praise, lack of beauty, lack of vision in your lives.... Gather together – you and your communities – in the context of this great, cosmic community to rejoice and give thanks. To heal and let go. To enter the dark and deep mysteries, to share the news....Be brave. Let your worship make you strong and whole again. Create yourself, re-create your worlds....Learn this together. Become a people. Worship together.”
29. The Cosmic Christ and Deep Ecumenism
Deep Ecumenism is the movement that will unleash the wisdom al all world religions – Hinduism and Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, Taoism and Shintoism, Christianity in all its forms, and native religious and goddess religions throughout the world.
MYSTICISM – A UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE
The Cosmic Christ – the “pattern that connects” – can connect all persons in the context of shared sacredness, the shared reverence and awe of our existence.
DEEP ECUMENISM – A PRELUDE TO WORLD PEACE AND JUSTICE
It is the essence of mysticism to move persons beyond dualism. To do so would be to end war, whose very essence is dualism
Religious traditions hold collective power – especially because they are more in touch with the voiceless ones – to motivate governments to interact on behalf of peace and justice.
SOME EXAMPLES OF DEEP ECUMENISM
The Spirit is greater than any one church, yet present in some fashion in all traditions, subject always, of course, to authentic “tests of the spirit”, such as justice.
EDUCATION FOR DEEP ECUMENISM
Every seminary needs courses to awaken the mystic within, and to empower future leaders to train others,
THE AGE OF WISDOM – THE RENAISSANCE USHERED IN THE COSMIC CHRIST
If an era of a living cosmology is to occur in our time, its basic sign will be that wisdom will count more then knowledge. Wisdom will mark all aspects of a culture’s existence.
IS THE “COSMIC CHRIST” A TERM THAT IS ANTI-ECUMENICAL?
The purpose of this book has been to explore the meaning behind the term and the tradition of the Cosmic Christ in the West, and to offer that meaning as common ground for understanding and responding to the challenges of our time.
THE COSMIC CHRIST SPEAKS ON DEEP ECUMENISM
“Come, children, drink of my waters which are all common waters. They are free and available to all my children. Drink of my wisdom from your own unique well....
I long for harmony. If there must be competition let it take place at the level of shared gifts and bountiful outpouring of wisdom.
Pray together. Create harmony and healing together. Celebrate, praise, and thank together.
Cease using religion to divide. Use it for its purpose, to reconnect to Mother Earth, to blessings, to the underground river that I am and that you all share....
Praise one another. Praise the earth. In doing so you praise me.”
Fox, M. (1987)978-0-06-062915-1 The Coming of he Cosmic Christ. HarperOne
ISBN 978-0-06-062915-1
Rose Isbell
Christchurch, New Zealand
June 2022