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Sheer Joy: Conversations With Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality

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Matthew Fox (born 1940) is a theologian and bestselling advocate of "Creation Spirituality." He became a Catholic priest of the Dominican order, but was removed in 1992, and has subsequently become an Episcopalian priest. He has published an autobiography, Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest.

Fox states in the Introduction to this 1992 book, "In this book I attempt a way of making Aquinas accessible, giving him a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. I present Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form that I believe allows late twentieth-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way... I descholasticize Aquinas by interviewing him. By interviewing Aquinas I am able to ask him OUR questions and allow him access to OUR pressing issues in spirituality."

As quoted by Fox, Aquinas is a virtual advocate of panentheism, holistic healing, and of course Creation Spirituality. Why is this presentation of St. Thomas so different from "traditional" portrayals? Fox writes, "To recover Aquinas's whole spirituality we must get back to his scriptural works"; his Bible commentaries, because "in them he is less restricted by a scholastic methodology than in his other works. Following the inner logic of the biblical text, he is free to make connections, let his creative genius work, and allow his heart as well as his head to speak."

You may or may not agree that this is a fair or representative presentation of the views of Thomas Aquinas. But it is a highly interesting one, in any case. And course, Fox offers his own opinions, as well, such as, "when I swim in the marvels that you have helped name for us ... all these meditations lead me to say simply, 'Thank You' to the Creator."

I never really "got" Thomas Aquinas, until I read Sheer Joy. Fox argues that it is the organization of Aquinas's writing that makes it so hard to grasp. Maybe.

But I do know that this book made Aquinas understandable to me. This was done without any dumbing down (that I could see). This is still a dense, long book. The ideas require thoughtful reading. But the results are immensely rewarding.