Leonardo Boff: Hope from Brazil re Kamala Harris for President

This weekend I obtained the next article from my pal in Brazil, theologian Leonardo Boff. I’ve lower it some to suit our format, and embody the rest within the video accompanying this DM. Boff referred to as it: “A Feminine President of the US: A Hope?”

The actual risk {that a} lady, Kamala Harris, will change into president of the imperial energy, the US of America, would characterize a novum within the historical past of that nation, and maybe a step ahead within the new relationship between genders.

The USA, impartial since 1776, has had 44 presidents, all males and none ladies. Many see the president solely in navy phrases, extra as the top of the Armed Forces—the one who holds the crimson phone and the button to launch a nuclear conflict—than because the promoter of the widespread good.  

That’s why they preserve combating wars in all places. Nearly all presidents, together with Obama, are imbued with “manifest future,” the assumption that the US is anointed as “that new folks of God with a mission to deliver (bourgeois) democracy, (particular person) human rights, and peace (of the market) for the world”.

Underneath the patriarchy that has lasted for ten thousand years, because the Neolithic period, with the formation of villages and agriculture, ladies have at all times been relegated to the non-public world. Even realizing {that a} historic period existed, twenty thousand years in the past, of matriarchy forming egalitarian societies that built-in with nature and was deeply non secular.

Patriarchy, the predominance of the male (machismo) was one of many biggest errors in human historical past. The kind of State we’ve is attributed to patriarchy, together with conflict and violence as a means of fixing issues, the non-public appropriation of land, and the technology of inequalities and all kinds of discrimination.

In capitalism, in its numerous varieties, it gained its most expressive configuration, with the speed of social inequity it brings with it.

All through this course of, the principle victims have been ladies, together with these disadvantaged of power and energy. Since then, the future of girls, in historical-social phrases, has been outlined based mostly on the person who occupied each public house.

However slowly, beginning in the US, within the nineteenth century, ladies grew to become conscious of their autonomous id. The feminist motion grew, grew to become lively in virtually all nations and occupied public areas. Getting into universities after which into the job market, ladies introduced their distinctive (non-exclusive) values as ladies: extra given to collaboration versus competitors from males, extra care, extra flexibility, extra skill to cope with complexity, extra human sensitivity and coronary heart, lastly, extra open to dialogue towards sexist and patriarchal authoritarianism.

In a phrase, they introduced extra humanity to a rational, inflexible, aggressive, environment friendly world, marked by the desire to energy as domination: the world of males. They, by their nature, characterize slightly the desire to reside and to narrate.

Even so, the combat for gender equality is much from being totally gained. It was solely in 1920 that ladies gained the correct to vote in the US. In Brazil solely in 1932.  At the moment 52% of the voters is feminine.

Empowering ladies’s id and relational autonomy will generate a brand new paradigm: that of reciprocity, of cooperation between women and men….

Politically, the easiest way to specific this civilizational advance could be participatory, socio-ecological democracy, by which man and lady cooperatively and in solidarity would construct a dream world that responds to the deepest wishes of the human psyche.

See Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Prophet for Our Instances, “The Divine Female: Meister Eckhart Meets Adrienne Wealthy,” pp. 57-76; and “Liberated and Liberating Sisters: Meister Eckhart meets Dorothee Soelle, the Beguines Mechtild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete, and Julian of Norwich,” pp. 77-96.

And Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Males: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine.

And Fox, Julian of Norwich: Knowledge in a Time of Pandemic—and Past.

And Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Instances: Unleashing Her Energy within the 21^st Century (Ahead by Sr. Joan Chittister)

And Fox, Important Writings on Creation Spirituality.

To learn the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click on HERE.

Banner Picture: A diorama of Neolithic folks within the Sanmenxia Metropolis Museum of Henan, China. Be aware how the ladies are within the foreground, and considered one of them seems to be invoking Spirit. Photograph by Gary Todd. Wikimedia Commons. 

Queries for Contemplation

Generally we overlook that the world watches American presidential elections, which maintain implications for the entire world.  How does it really feel to know {that a} famend theologian in Brazil is watching the American presidential election intently, and is impressed by the probabilities of a primary American lady president?

Really helpful Studying

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally needs to introduce Eckhart to at the moment’s activists addressing up to date crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and plenty of others.
“Matthew Fox is maybe the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a spot between Eckhart as a shamanistic persona and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to at the moment’s non secular disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Creator of Religious Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead

The Hidden Spirituality of Males: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he finds ten metaphors, or archetypes, starting from the Inexperienced Man, an historic pagan image of our basic relationship with nature,  to the Religious Warrior….These timeless archetypes can encourage males to pursue their greater calling to connect with their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Each man on this planet ought to learn this e-book — to not point out each lady who needs to grasp the struggles, usually unconscious, that form the boys they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, writer of The Left Hand of God

Julian of Norwich: Knowledge in a Time of Pandemic–and Past

Julian of Norwich lived by the dreadful bubonic plague that killed near 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep knowledge that she shared in her e-book, Showings, which was the primary e-book in English by a lady. A theologian means forward of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mom on the coronary heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings on this highly effective and well timed and provoking e-book.
“What an completely magnificent e-book. The work of Julian of Norwich, lovingly supported by the genius of Matthew Fox, is a roadmap into the center of the eco-spiritual reality that every one life breathes collectively.”  –Caroline Myss
Now additionally out there as an audiobook HERE.

Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this superb lady and what we will study from her.
In an period when ladies have been marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial determine. But so visionary was her perception that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for recommendation.
“This e-book provides robust, sterling, and unvarnished proof that every part – every part – we ourselves change into will have an effect on what ladies after us might also change into….This can be a actually marvelous, helpful, profound, and artistic e-book.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, writer of The Hope: A Information to Sacred Activism.

Matthew Fox: Important Writings on Creation Spirituality
Chosen with an Introduction by Charles Burack

To encapsulate the life and work of Matthew Fox could be a frightening process for any save his colleague Dr. Charles Burack, who had the complete cooperation of his topic. Fox has devoted 50 years to creating and instructing the custom of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented types of training and worship.  His greater than 40 books, translated into 78 languages, are inclusive of at the moment’s science and world non secular traditions and have woke up hundreds of thousands to the a lot uncared for earth-based mystical custom of the West. Important Writings begins by exploring the influences on Fox’s life and spirituality, then presents alternatives from all Fox’s main works in 10 sections.
“The vital insights, the inventive connections, the centrality of Matthew Fox’s writings and instructing are second to none for the unconventional renewal of Christianity.” ~~ Richard Rohr, OFM.