Where Have All the Christian Intellectuals Gone? (Does Anyone Remember John Paul's and Ratzinger's Purge of Catholic Theologians?)

It's a thing now among journalists and religion commentators to ask what has happened to the public intellectuals of the churches in the past few decades — as Catholic commentator E.J. Dionne does in this Commonweal essay. Where have they gone? Why are they not with us any longer — the Niebuhrs (or, as Fred Clark points out, the Martin Luther Kings who never get mentioned in this discussion, and isn't that curious, and noteworthy)?

bell hooks on Worship of Death As Central Component of Patriarchal Thinking: The Events in Paris and Our Response to Them

On my retreat the last two weeks, I read bell hooks' book All About Love: New Visions (NY: William Morrow, 2000). The following passage has profound resonance for me now, after the events several days ago in Paris:

Matthew Fox on Benedict XVI (in Introduction to Norbert Krapf's Catholic Boy Blues): Suggestions for a Retreat for the Pope Emeritus

I'm doing a lot of reading lately, and it occurs to me to share the fruits of that labor with you by way of snippets from things I'm reading, with occasional commentary on those snippets: the following is from theologian Matthew Fox's introduction to Norbert Krapf's Catholic Boy Blues (Nashville: Greystone, 2014):

Rebecca Solnit on Struggle to Name the Significance of Isla Vista Shootings as "Watershed Moment in the History of Feminism"

In yesterday's New York Times, Charles Blow continues the post-Isla Vista drumbeat of insistence that men, all men, need to face the fact that we're at the root of the problem of "female objectification and discrimination and violence against women." Contra those who want to minimize said problem, Blow writes flatly:

More (and Final Installment) from Augustine Thompson's Biography of Francis of Assisi on Francis and Gender

As I've said previously, I'm intrigued by the number of times Augustine Thompson's new biography of Francis of Assisi shows Francis contravening what are now regarded as "traditional" gender lines inscribed in stone by natural law. I think it's worth noting these instances because the current pope also contravened longstanding tradition to choose the name Francis, a name that has, as theologians Matthew Fox and Leonardo Boff insist, a certain resonance for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Open Letter to Pope Francis and Cardinal-Advisors from For Christ's Sake: "All Catholics Have the Right, Innately Deriving from Our Baptism, to Have an Effective and Deliberative Voice"

More on the discussion of the agenda of reform that many lay Catholics hope the current pope has begun to undertake with the assistance of his advisory group of eight cardinals: at the For Christ's Sake website, an open letter (in pdf format) to the pope and his advisory group was published prior to last week's meeting of the advisors. The For Christ's Sake site was set up to support a previous petition of three Australian Catholic bishops--Geoffrey Robinson, Pat Power, and Bill Morris--to Pope Francis calling for a council of the entire church to address, and to end, the problem of sexual abuse of minors in the church. I recommended that petition to Bilgrimage readers this past June.

Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: "It Is Essential to Talk of Women's Rights"

Throughout his book Letters to Pope Francis, theologian Matthew Fox points out that one of the major gifts to the church of the saint whose name Cardinal Bergoglio chose for his papal name--Francis--is the gift of gender balance. Fox notes (p. 12) that Francis of Assisi's actions "reveal a man who recognizes the necessary balance of masculine and feminine, yang and yin, in all beings and in all relationships if we are to be a sustainable species."

Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: "Let's Be Honest--Francis Never Attended a Seminary"

On this feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, another excerpt from Matthew Fox's book Letters to Pope Francis:

Pope Francis and Theology of Women: Overcoming Us-Them Imagination in Catholic Clerical Structure's Understanding of Women

In a posting at the Commonweal blog site two days ago, theologian Lisa Fullam suggests that those who want to help Pope Francis better understand the "theology of women" that he has said the church needs might send Francis boxes of books to help with this educational process. Lisa asks for suggestions of books to be included in the box. She'd like to compile a master list of 10 books.

Jeff Sharlet on Ditto Boys: Laying Bare the Ideology of Male-Bonded Obedience in New Religious Movements Like the Fellowship and Opus Dei

In the excerpt from his letter to Pope Francis on "new evangelization" that I featured yesterday, Matthew Fox maintains that many of the cultic "lay" movements within Catholicism today that are spearheading the "new evangelization" aren't about proclaiming the gospel at all. Groups such as Opus Dei and the Legion of Christ substitute for the gospel, Fox argues, a "theology" of christofascist authoritarianism that boils the entire Christian faith down into a bare command to obey--to obey the highest authority figure in one's group, which is, for Catholics, the pope.

Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: On the "New" Evangelization

More excerpts from Matthew Fox's book Letters to Pope Francis: in an important letter in the book, Fox discusses the "new" evangelization that was so strongly promoted by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and encourages Francis to look closely at what the term "evangelize" actually means, as he himself promotes the church's mission of proclaiming the good news of the gospel to the world: 

Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: The Name Francis and Stories about Fathers

Another excerpt from Matthew Fox's book Letters to Pope Francis: in the opening chapter of his book, Fox explores the promise he sees in the new pope's choice of the name Francis. Part of that promise is the way in which Francis of Assisi was willing to bend rigid gender lines, to honor (and incorporate into his own discipleship) the feminine and repudiate the aggressive masculine insofar as it is determined to dominate others:

Matthew Fox, Letters to Pope Francis: On Homosexuality

I've begun reading Matthew Fox's recent book Letters to Pope Francis, and thought it might be helpful to readers if I posted excerpts (and perhaps some commentary) from the book--as I have done previously for Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God and Margaret Farley's Just Love. 

Kiva, Strathmore University, and Opus Dei: The Rest of the Story (Up to the Present)

So here's an update about what has been happening in the discussion of the choice of Kiva, a charitable non-profit that claims to support gay rights, to partner with an Opus Dei university in Kenya, about which I've blogged recently (and here): as the first link states, Tony Adams and Beverly Woods have told this story to wide audiences beyond the discussion boards of several lending groups at Kiva itself, where it had already begun receiving much attention.*

Matthew Fox to Pope Francis: "With All My Heart I Hope Your Papacy Is One of Compassion in Its Fullest and Richest Meanings"

Matthew Fox

Theologian (and former Catholic priest) Matthew Fox writes Pope Francis an impassioned, theologically rich open letter in the Jewish journal of theology and spirituality, Tikkun. Fox tells Francis that he hopes with all his heart that Francis's papacy will be about compassion in its fullest meaning: compassion must comprise justice, since both for the Jewish  and the Christian tradition represented by Fox's mentor Meister Eckhart, love is never real and apparent in the absence of justice. Echoing the psalmist, Eckhart insists that compassion is found where peace and justice kiss.

Matthew Fox on Benedict's Legacy and the Necessary Destruction of the Imperial Church

Last week, Rob Kall of OpEd News's Up Radio interviewed Dominican theologian and former Catholic priest Matthew Fox regarding the transition in the papacy and what it portends for the future of the Catholic church.* A two-part transcript of the interview is at the OpEd News website here and here.