Welcome from Matthew Fox

What a wonderful book!  Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.

--Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Matthew Fox's exciting book on Thomas Aquinas breaks new ground in appreciating the great saint's spiritual depths and practical wisdom.  As Fox indicates, citing a great historian with whom he studied, Aquinas's spirituality is "everywhere" in his work because he is so attuned to the sacredness of life itself and of nature in all its diverse and wonderful beauty--including human nature and its creativity.  Aquinas comes through as a real brother to Francis of Assisi and a real champion for our times as humanity faces eco destruction and massive extinctions.  This handbook offers a guide for all humans to stand up, be counted and make a difference.

--Richard Rohr, OFM, Center of Action and Contemplation, author, Divine Dance

This thrilling, exalted, fierce, sublime book by our greatest and wisest living Christian prophet reveals Thomas Aquinas not only as the Bach of Christian Mystics, boundlessly and groundedly creative, majestic and pragmatic--but also as the most inspired and vibrant possible companion for all sacred activists now struggling to birth a new world.
No-one but Matthew Fox could have pulled off so magical and necessary a resurrection. Whatever path you are on, read this book and be renewed by its illumined passion for the titanic work ahead.

--Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope and Turn Me To Gold: 108 Translations of Kabir.

In the future, when we look back at the individuals who had the greatest impact on Christian thinking in the early 21st century, I believe that Matthew Fox will be among those at the top of the list. He has not only gone far in rattling conservative dogma, but he has done it from a place deeply rooted in scripture and tradition. His vision of a more contemplative, compassionate, and social-justice-oriented Christianity is exactly what is needed for our faith to survive and grow--at once nourishing the world and being in dialogue with other spiritual traditions.
Fox has a special ability to recontextualize the deep mystical wisdom of the spiritual masters of the church in a way that makes them urgently relevant for our times. This is exactly what he has done with Thomas Aquinas in his new book--showing us how this medieval, Dominican scholar has much to teach us about mysticism, modern psychology, the environmental movement, science, and social justice. Fox has once again taken some of the gems of the Christian tradition and made them sparkle anew.

--Paul Engler, founding director of Center for the Working Poor and co-author, This Is An Uprising

In my 20s I encountered Thomas Aquinas while studying the creation spirituality of Matthew Fox. This turned out to be an event that changed my life forever. It felt like I had discovered a secret energy source, like I was this lonely geologist who had stumbled upon an untapped oil field as vast as Saudi Arabia, but filled with a psychic form of energy a thousand times more potent than oil or gas. Thomas Aquinas's wisdom supercharged my life and my creativity for decades. You have in your hands the magical switch to the spiritual energy you need to accomplish the great work for which you were created. Nothing can stop you now.         

 -- Brian Thomas Swimme, California Institute of Integral Studies, cosmologist
and author of The Universe Story (with Thomas Berry) and Journey of the Universe

With his characteristic vigor, wit and startling insight, Matthew Fox reclaims living wisdom from the murky recesses of theology.  Who knew that Thomas Aquinas was so extravagantly brimming with a vital blend of earthy reverence and contemplative quietude, blessing the holiness of all that is incarnational while exalting the One that transcends all distinction?  May these distilled teachings contribute to mending the torn web of the world.                                                                  
                                                 --Mirabai Starr, Author of God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity & Islam, and Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics

I am awake after reading this remarkable book and I believe readers who take time to carefully peruse it will awaken to the grandeur of the Universe too, a Cosmos, which, according to Aquinas, is the most excellent thing that exists; not finite human existence, but the transhuman magnificence.
As readers awaken to the banquet of Fox’s newest book (certainly one of his best) a new creation emerges through a “second resurrection” of companioning souls, each in a new creation of “superbeauty,” a “four-fold beauty” that aims at personal and global healing.
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a gift of supreme thankfulness and praise from the pen of a true doctor of the Church whose spiritual calling is to heal us, with playfulness and celebration, from the stiff teachings and anthropomorphism of Christ that historically made Catholic theology sick.
This book is a work of restoration and repairing. It is a work of remarkable revelation and compassion: Redemption of Aquinas from the rational prison he was caged in for 800 years!  Fox has freed Aquinas from bondage and liberated his true voice and gives us his grapes of spiritual glory, to return us each to our true humanity, before it is too late.       

 —Steve Hermann, Phd, Jungian analyst and author of Spiritual Democracy

Matthew Fox’s The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times is a little book that asks big questions.  It brings the work of Aquinas to the fundamental challenges and questions of our time: How can we re-discover our place in the cosmos? How can we be joyful in difficult times? How can our spiritual lives serve to bring forth a more just and sustainable culture for all rather than salvation for a few?
The book points out that we need the energy of today’s youth, but we also need the cosmic mysticism of Aquinas—and Matthew Fox.                                                               

--Theodore Richards, author of Creatively Maladjusted and
The Great Re-Imagining: Spirituality in an Age of Apocalypse

This is a beautiful and important book. Once again, Matthew Fox manages to bring Thomas Aquinas into the 21st century and invites us all to the conversation. At a time when our very future is threatened by greed, despair, and the threat of extinction, Aquinas’ timeless wisdom, so brilliantly illuminated by Fox, offers a roadmap for spirituality and action — and these teachings are more relevant and needed now than ever before.

--Adam Bucko, co-author of Occupy Spirituality and The New Monasticism

Matthew Fox brings Thomas Aquinas to life in a way that transcends intellectual arguments. There is a deep love for Aquinas here, a profound appreciation for the way Thomas delighted in divine freedom and goodness spilling over into creation, instilling an exuberance within creation that awakens within us a desire for beauty, wholeness and the deepening of love; a creation drunk with beauty and wisdom.   Thomas’s God soars like the wind beneath our feet, propelling us on to more beauty and truth; a God who is a living God, active and alive in our midst, in our cells and bodies, a God breathing new life into everything that exists. What else could religion be but one long continuous act of gratitude?
This is a beautiful book, a book written by one who fell in love with Thomas Aquinas as a young scholar and who has never ceased to love Thomas in a way that brings this great medieval theologian’s mystical vision into a living reality.

--From the Foreword by Ilia Delio, OFM,
author of The Unbearable Wholeness of Being and The Emergent Christ

I have been absolutely DEVOURING Matthew Fox’s new book on Thomas Aquinas!  I have to read portions at a time because it just makes me so energized I feel like running a marathon!

--Jerry Maynard, Gen-Z priest and Catholic Worker activist

Matthew Fox has condensed the deep and complex theology of Thomas Aquinas into delicious bites of wisdom, riffing on key quotations from this medieval churchman who dared to introduce Aristotle’s pagan science to Christian Europe, and serving up the choicest morsels with their relevance to 21st century life.

--Nancy Abrams, author of View From the Center of the Universe
and A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science and the Future of Our Planet

Matt Fox rescues Aquinas from academia by gleaning wisdom, poetry and beauty from writings often overlooked. The book presents in easy to understand brief chapters with titles using Aquinas’ own words that entice a waking up to investigation, reflection and conversation. (e.g; Chapter 4 is titled, The greatness of the human person consists in this: that we are capable of the universe.) He places Aquinas among a lineage of giants who have something to say to a world in need of a courageous and prophetic boldness. This book can be considered an introduction to the deep questioning and seeking of truth that one finds everywhere in Aquinas.
The use of the word, “Tao” references an East/West convergence so needed today in our efforts to bring action and contemplation, the mystical and the prophetic together globally. Often letting Aquinas speak for himself, Matt Fox brings both respect for Aquinas and his lineage, and Matt’s own scholarship from his years as my Dominican brother. Threats to the earth as we know it and other consequential matters require the efforts of all who seek a spirituality deep and engaging that leads to compassionate action.
Matt Fox refers to this his latest book as his “short Aquinas book.” It will surely become a straightforward and useful reference for young activists and their mentors Matt has in mind in writing this book. It is easy to imagine it carried in backpacks to wherever its wisdom is needed.

--Br. Joseph Kilikevice, OP, Shem Center for Interfaith Spirituality, Oak Park, Il.

In this delightful book, Matthew Fox expresses the radical vision and rapturous heart of the historically misunderstood Thomas Aquinas who speaks often a child-like, brilliant and clear metaphysic of cosmic love. This is a timely book for both the old and the young alike in our culture of suspicion and cynicism. In our age of weaponized words and rapid climate change, young people everywhere are invited to drink from a common stream of wisdom, a Tao, both cool and clear. The sheer wonder of the scientist and the awe of the mystic may meet in the middle of this great bridge of revelation. For the heartbeat of the universe is the heartbeat of God--an exuberant celebration of joy, an ecstatic, drunken dance of love.

--Matthew Syrdal, author, speaker and Co-founder of Seminary of the Wild

 Thomas Aquinas, like many sages and prophets, has often had his message watered down to the point that the potency of his words is drowned out of existence. However, in this timely work, Matthew Fox has revived Aquinas for our time and given him a framework that allows all of us to recognize that this message is the instrument that will give our weary world a new song of liberation.
While reading through this work, I felt a great saint (whose work I have enjoyed reading in the past) was speaking directly to me in my current context — a reality that proves Aquinas is speaking wisdom for our times.
I experienced a deep sense of being affirmed while reading through this book. I realized that through the words of Aquinas, my generation (Millennials) was being granted permission (by a saint!) not only to claim our rightful place as prophets but also to wholeheartedly embrace our identities as the beloved of God.
Aquinas (whether he knew it or he did not know it centuries ago when writing down these teachings), is testifying to life expressions of many young adults all over this world who have been acting upon the inner tug of Spirit to move forward in daring to build a radically different world where justice is the foundation, elitism is no more, and tenderness is our culture.
Who knew Thomas Aquinas, a medieval theologian and philosopher, was such a revolutionary! Can we also dare to dwell in our innate goodness and demand that we be treated as the beloved children of God?
Our marching orders are clear and the path has been set for us. We do not have the luxury of time to allow external forces to keep us from giving birth to new realities of global justice and cosmic oneness. We must embrace the beautiful wisdom in this book and get to work!                                                                                                                                 

-- From the Afterword by Rev. Jerry Maynard, Gen-Z activist priest