Competing Christianities—Matthew Fox and His “New Reformation”
Albert Mohler
Monday, April 03, 2006
The conventional wisdom reminds us that a man is often known by his enemies. The same is true for Christianity and, through centuries of heresy, schism, and apostasy, Christianity has collected a good number of enemies.
Now comes Matthew Fox, a former Dominican priest and current controversialist, who sets himself against orthodox Christianity and calls for "a new reformation" that would transform Christianity for the twenty-first century. Of course, it would also transform Christianity into something other than Christianity, but that is precisely what Fox intends.
Matthew Fox is no stranger to tumult and conflict. Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1940, Fox was ordained a Roman Catholic priest of the Dominican order in 1967. After graduating from Aquinas Institute and the Institut Catholique de Paris, Fox became known for his method of combining non-Christian spiritualities with Christian symbolism. Fox's syncretism and rejection of core Christian beliefs led to conflict with the Vatican. From 1989 to 1990, Fox was officially silenced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Just three years later, he was expelled from the Dominican order.
In a statement published in his most recent book, Fox's conflict with the Vatican is described like this: "The principled objections to Fox's work on the part of the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were that he is a 'feminist theologian,' that he calls God 'Mother,' . . . that he prefers 'Original Blessing' to 'Original Sin,' that he calls God 'child,' that he associates too closely with Native Americans, and that he does not condemn homosexuals." the rest
For those who don't know who he is-from Wikipepia: here
Born Timothy James, Fox was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1940. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1967. He received Masters Degrees in both philosophy and theology from Aquinas Institute, and later earned a Ph.D. in spirituality, summa cum laude, from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Due to his controversial teachings, he was censured by the Vatican in 1989 and forbidden to teach, and later dismissed from the Dominican order. He was later received as an Episcopal priest by Bishop William Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of California.
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