MATTHEW FOX’S LEARNED BELIEFS

1) I believe in the artist and the scientist and the mystical tradition joining hands and bringing about a renaissance.

2) I believe in diversity and its power to create.

3) I believe that even God is diverse and that no one controls the Spirit.

4) I believe that we cannot live deeply without forgiveness, which is a letting go.

5) I believe that the shadow and enemies are part of life's teachers.

6) I believe in the power of 'ideas' to liberate, support, heal, build understanding and insight, and feed healthy imagination.

7) I believe Gaia is not inert and passive, as the modern age taught us.

8) I believe that culture and spirituality are all mixed up together.*

9) I believe that prayer is a radical response to life.

10) I believe in the wisdom found in 'all' world religions.

11) I believe that the so-called first world needs liberation badly, but because it is utterly different from that of third-world nations, its method of liberation must also differ.

12) I believe that the first world ought to begin its liberation by addressing its enslavement to addictions.

13) I believe that it is no coincidence that the century in which Christianity inherited an empire was also the century in which Augustine filled us with guilt for our sexuality and our bodies.

14) I believe that the operative word for Christian and biblical spirituality is compassion.