Matthew Fox to leave college

National Catholic Reporter, March 1, 1996 by Jorge Aquino

OAKLAND, Calif.--Breaking his last formal tie with Roman Catholicism, maverick theologian Matthew Fox will leave Oakland's College of the Holy Names in May to establish an independent educational institution, the University of Creation Spirituality.

Since 1984, Holy Names, a small Catholic college, has been home to Fox's Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality or ICCS.

The institute gained notoriety for its cutting-edge approach to theological education -- a postmodern, ecumenical mix of world religions, the arts and New Age spiritualities.

Fox's theology retains many of the tenets of Christianity but downplays traditional notions of humanity's sinfulness and seeks to foster a spirituality based on ancient Christian mysticism.

The ICCS program survived 12 years of Vatican attacks on Fox, a former Catholic priest who was criticized for favoring the ordination of women, hiring a practitioner of the Wiccan religion on his faculty and allegedly denying the doctrine of original sin.

Fox was expelled from the Dominican Order in 1993. In December 1994 he became en episcopal priest.

Fox told administrators, faculty and students Feb. 12 he was leaving Holy Names because he wanted to take his "post-denominational" vision of Christianity further than he could at the liberal Catholic college.

He criticized efforts by Holy Names to "institutionalize" the ICCS program with more stringent reviews dews of curricula. He also said the school resisted his efforts to establish a high-tech ritual center and to accredit course work in "rave" spirituality.

"My basic attitude toward Holy Names is gratitude and pride," Fox said. "We did positive things for 12 years."

Holy Names President Mary Alice Muellerleile denied church pressures affected the school's relationship with Fox. On the contrary, she said, Holy Names would have been happy to keep Fox on its faculty and was prepared to renew his annual teaching contract.

"It's a loss to us because Matthew Fox has an international reputation," Muellerleile said. "So there's some sadness. On the other hand ... I'm not. sure that some of his current interests would have been incorporated into the college's program."

She said a creation spirituality program will continue to be "a vital part of Holy Names College," albeit under a different name, the Program in Culture and Creation Spirituality, and under different leadership.

Muellerleile said Fox was frustrated because he was unable to launch a doctoral program in creation spirituality through his institute. She also said Holy Names was reluctant to support Fox's attempts to develop curriculum on rave liturgy.

The rave mass -- like the "Planetary Mass," which Fox and a group of Anglicans from Sheffield, Englana, produced at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral in 1993 -- is a Eucharist-centered liturgy in which congregants dance to hip-hop and rap music in a room studded with television monitors that pulse with psychedelic video imagery.

Muellerleile said the cost of electronic equipment for a rave ritual center would have been too much for the college.

Fox will be free of such constraints if, as planned, he opens his University of Creation spirituality this September in two ramshackle office buildings downtown Oakland.

Fox said he will admit no more than 100 students who would pay $7,5Q0 in annual tuition -- considerably less than the $11,600 Holy Names charges. The school would offer master of arts and doctor of ministry degrees but would have no formal accreditation, unlike Holy Names.

Fox faces serious challenges in making his new school a success. He has borrowed $85,000 from the California Episcopal diocese and an undisclosed sum from a Dutch businessman.