One River, Many Wells

Who but Matthew Fox--former Dominican priest, author of countless influential books such as Original Blessing and The Reinvention of Work, silenced by the Vatican for his controversial statements about creation spirituality, and now an Episcopal priest--would combine rave dances with a religious mass? And who else would now attempt such a distillation of the world's religions as this book brings us? Combining writings from a multitude of spiritual traditions, Fox here puts into practice the idea of deep ecumenism that he has been exploring in a series of books going back to The Coming of the Cosmic Christ in 1989. To accomplish this task, Fox focuses on four categories of spiritual inquiry that he sees running like a river through all spiritual traditions: how we relate to creation, to divinity, to ourselves (this includes topics such as meditation, art, ritual, sexuality), and, finally, how we relate to the future, a section that explores issues of service and compassion, justice and spiritual warriorhood. He then concludes with "18 New Myths and Visions" that summarize his central message.

Simplicity and clarity are the goals of this book. To achieve this Fox weaves his own brief commentary through a series of quotations drawn from a myriad of traditions. While it may be faulted by some for this method of making easy connections between traditions, the book serves its purpose as a kind of primer for deep ecumenism. It will be especially useful for those new to such ideas, and to those who might otherwise never meet Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich, Hafiz, and the Sufi Ibn Arabi--not to mention Thomas Aquinas, physicist Werner Heisenberg, and geologian Thomas Berry--all sharing each other's company. --Doug Thorpe