“A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey” by Matthew Fox. New World Library (Novato, California, 2016). 320 pp., $18.95.
Reviewed by Mitch Finley
Matthew Fox is an ex-Catholic and ex-Dominican priest who is now an Episcopalian. In 1993, he was silenced for his theological views — including his advocacy for women’s ordination, same-sex unions and some of his writings on creation spirituality. He was expelled from the Dominicans by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now-retired Pope Benedict XVI), the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Over the years, Fox claimed to find the roots of “creation spirituality” in numerous sources including St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Dante Alighieri, Meister Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, Hildegard of Bingen, and not only the Bible but Jesus himself.
Fox also finds support for his views in various ecological and environmental movements as well as Buddhism, Sufism and American Indian spirituality. He tags this broadmindedness “deep ecumenism.”
In this latest book, “A Way to God,” Fox adds Trappist Father Thomas Merton to his list of those in whose thought he finds agreement with the tenets of creation spirituality. Father Merton wrote one letter to Fox in 1967, following that some months later with a package of bound notes on various topics along with a single-sentence note. Other than this, the book relies on Merton’s own published writings.
Fox finds in Father Merton’s thought what he identifies as a progression from a rather simple ascetic piety to a position virtually identical with his own. That is, Fox finds in Father Merton yet another great religious thinker who, if alive today, would be an advocate of creation spirituality. For Fox there is little doubt that Merton would agree with him on just about everything, as would Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Eckhart, etc.
The trouble is that, aside from what he wrote as he turned things over in his mind, we don’t know how Father Merton would have finally acted in any given situation. Certainly it’s clear from Father Merton’s own journals, for example, that while he recognized the weak thinking and empty authoritarianism behind much of what he was asked to do in the name of his vow of obedience, in the end he obeyed, and for spiritually and intellectually healthy reasons.
Blind obedience wasn’t in Father Merton’s nature, but neither was rebellious disobedience implying an unconscious belief in his own infallibility. Father Merton would have laughed at anyone who suggested that he leave the Trappists and become a prophet for his own opinions. He knew the real meaning of humility and it had nothing to do with insisting that “they’re wrong and I’m right” followed by becoming a martyr in his own eyes.
Fox believes Merton was assassinated by the government of the United States, although he doesn’t believe this can be proven. Still, he is convinced it’s so based on “circumstantial evidence,” about which one hears so much on television crime shows.
“A Way to God” is a book worth reading for anyone interested in the theology of spirituality and in the life and thought of Father Merton.
Mitch Finley is the author of more than 30 books on Catholic themes, including “What Faith is Not” (Sheed & Ward) and “The Rosary Handbook: A Guide for Newcomers, Old-Timers, and Those In Between” (The Word Among Us Press).
Why not read Father Merton directly instead of paying the dissident Fox?
The first paragraph of this review gives all the reason not to read this book. If you are not fully committed to the Faith, books like this can be very damaging to the spirituality of the average person. Decades of poor catechesis leads souls to ruin, not salvation.