The Beloved Will Guide You

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.