The Beloved Will Guide You - by Matthew Fox (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Matthew Fox's new book offers an interpretation of the great Christian mystic, John of the Cross, using the four paths of Creation Spirituality, making him come alive again. John only had access to the spiritual-literary paths of purgation, illumination, and union, plus he had the Spanish Inquisition breathing down his neck, so his writings are sometimes misunderstood--or not seen clearly. Matthew Fox shows how John was in fact way ahead of his time.

Fox interprets the legendary "dark night" poetry as prison literature, on the Via Transformativa path of Creation Spirituality, about the struggle for justice. The Via Creativa also proves paramount since John is considered one of the best poets in the Spanish language to this day. The Via Positiva is stunningly present, too, as is the Via Negativa and John's profound sense of the apophatic divinity that continues to influence non-dual mystics, theologians, and ordinary readers of spirituality today. Fox brings all of this alive--and John of the Cross--into fresh, immediately relevance. The four paths reset John's spiritual gifts and just when we need them most: as we find ourselves in a triple dark night--of soul, society (democracy), and with Mother Earth beset by global warming at the hands of humanity.

Review Quotes

"This book is unputdownable. Truly brilliant. It is a wonderful love letter to the world. And with the insertion of the Via Positiva, it offers a vital fourth dimension, a great honoring, and a beautiful unfolding of San Juan's great work." --Robert Holden, author of Higher Purpose: How to Find Meaning, Inspiration and Purpose in Your Life, and Shift Happens

"In this extraordinary work, both of exegesis and prophetic passion, Matthew Fox presents us from the blazing heart of the Christian mystical tradition exactly the guide we need to steer us through the terrifying and all comprehensive dark night we are now enduring. Fox's St. John not only understands with devastating lucidity all the stages of the dark night process, he also knows how to endure them and live them not only as a dying, but as a birthing into embodied liberation and lived Christhood." --Andrew Harvey, author of Son of Man and The Magdalene Revolution

About the Author

Matthew Fox is the author of many books on spirituality and culture that have been translated into 69 languages. He holds a doctorate in the history and theology of spiritualities from the Institut Catholique de Paris and was a priest in the Dominican Order for more than 30 years before being silence by the Vatican and then dismissed. Since then, he founded the University of Creation Spirituality (UCS) in Oakland, CA and became an Episcopal priest. A new school called the Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality has also recently been launched in Boulder, CO. He lives in the Bay Area of northern California. Among the awards granted him have been the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Peace Award from Morehouse College, the Humanities Award of the Sufi International Association of Sufism, and the Tikkun Ethics Award. www.matthewfox.org