A vibrant, sonorous, philosophically rich introduction to Fox’s teachings.
A leader of a spiritual movement emphasizing creativity, holism, ecology, and feminism sounds off in this wide-ranging digest.
Fox, a major contemporary theorist of progressive spirituality, began his career as a Dominican priest but was expelled from the priesthood by the Vatican for deviating from Catholic doctrine. He went on to become an Episcopal priest and founded the University of Creation Spirituality. Burack’s volume gathers excerpts from Fox’s many books and interviews in which he critiques traditional Christianity, which he views as excessively focused on original sin, the fall and redemption of man, private salvation, repression of passion, an “uber masculine and phallic” patriarchal perspective, and a separation of spirituality from nature and the body. Challenging this orthodoxy, Fox proffers a “creation spirituality” that posits creativity as the organizing principle of the universe, which he sees as inherently good and steeped in “original blessing.” His creation spirituality is feminist, revering God the Mother; full of ecstatic passion and sensuality; intent on furthering social justice; warmly accepting of the body; vigilant about protecting Mother Earth from ecological crises; and centered on “the Cosmic Christ,” who is immanent in all things. (Fox is known for his celebrations of “the Cosmic Mass,” a worship service that resembles a rave with dancing and light shows.) Fox grounds all of this in intellectually sophisticated but lucid and engaging discussions of medieval Catholic thinkers, like Thomas Aquinas and Hildegard of Bingen, Native American and Eastern religions, and quantum physics, which, he contends, provides a scientific rationale for the mystical oneness of all being. Traditionalists may sometimes wince at his revisions of Catholic verities—“Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us co-creators now and at the hour of our creativity” is his rendering of the Hail Mary prayer, which came to him during a vision quest—but his religious effusions have their own resonant grandeur. (“A new commandment has been given to us: thou shalt love your life with all your strength and energy, growing daily in appreciation of the joys of life; and you shall allow and aid where possible your neighbor to love his/hers and do the same, using common norms of justice to determine life’s priorities.”) Readers will find here a captivating introduction to Fox’s multifaceted ideas.
A vibrant, sonorous, philosophically rich introduction to Fox’s teachings.Pub Date: March 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-62698-455-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Orbis
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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