Preface
While I was writing this book, I became excited about it and described it to others as “a short book on Thomas Aquinas.” As I shared draft copies with respected colleagues, many of whose words appear on the “Praise for Tao of Thomas Aquinas” pages, something deeper emerged for me.
Something seemed to speak to me and say: “Aquinas is talking here—one of the greatest geniuses in Western history—he is speaking through you to a new generation, a generation facing profound challenges such as climate change (and climate change denial), spasms of extinction on a scale not seen since the dinosaurs, and the collapse of the modern world amid loss, shadow, and grief. Aquinas wants to speak to this generation out of his depth and wisdom—and you are his mouthpiece, his translator. Give him a microphone, and let him talk about what matters.” (Aquinas says “a little knowledge about important things is far more valuable than a lot of knowledge about unimportant things.”)
In these pages I have attempted to offer an accessible and succinct platform to hear the heart and mind of this giant thinker, philosopher, scientist, theologian, mystic, and prophet. And to make his wisdom available to many—especially the young.
Thus this handbook of spirituality straight from the mind and heart of my brother Thomas, called “Thomas the Creator” by G. K. Chesterton ninety-seven years ago.
Activists need and deserve a worldview, a cosmology, by which to act, in which to dwell, and to which to return for nourishment when waging battles for a sustainable future. If “ecology is functional cosmology,” as Thomas Berry teaches, then we need cosmology in this postmodern time. We need wisdom and not just more knowledge and information. Facts are important, but they do not save us. Wisdom does.
In many ways Aquinas is a central hub in a wheel of philosophical and religious wisdom—he gathers wisdom from philosophers and from the Bible, from theologians and from scientists, from artists and activists. He has been described as having “led a revolution in Christian thought.” His thinking offers us all—believers and nonbelievers—a badly needed revolution in consciousness today, one grounded in the sacredness of creation. In this short handbook are insights useful for generations to come.
May Thomas encourage all spiritual warriors and activists from his heart and mind shared in this handbook. Let it grow your vision and your courage. Take it to prison with you or to school or to church so your love flows, and nondualism and nonviolence blossom into the justice and compassion, the action and the contemplation, for which the human heart longs so deeply.
Matthew Fox
January 15, 2020
Feast of Martin Luther King Jr
Vallejo, California