Navigating Evil in a World in Crisis – Free Class with Matthew Fox
It can be difficult to stay grounded, hopeful, and spiritually awake when the world around you feels overwhelmed by conflict, injustice, environmental crisis, and uncertainty. The question is not simply how to escape the darkness, but how to meet it without surrendering your conscience, creativity, or sense of sacred purpose.
Spiritual pioneer Matthew Fox offers a different way to approach these times through the wisdom of St. John of the Cross and his enduring teaching on the “Dark Night of the Soul.” Rather than denying suffering or covering it with easy optimism, Matthew invites us to name what is happening and explore what the darkness may be asking of us.
You’ll explore Matthew’s understanding of a triple Dark Night affecting Mother Earth, global politics, and our individual souls. Through mysticism, poetry, spiritual history, and reflection on the nature of evil, he will consider how difficult passages can become openings for greater moral imagination, compassion, courage, and meaningful action.
Matthew will also reflect on St. John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul” poem, born after imprisonment and suffering, and explore how this powerful mystical vision can illuminate the challenges of our own era.
Why Attend “Navigating Evil in a World in Crisis: How the Dark Night of These Times Can Birth Spiritual Courage, Creativity & Positive Change”
When suffering and upheaval become difficult to ignore, spiritual practice can face a serious test. Matthew Fox approaches that challenge by asking what it means to confront darkness directly without being consumed by helplessness, denial, or despair.
St. John of the Cross offers a powerful lens for this inquiry because his teaching on the Dark Night emerged from an experience of imprisonment and suffering. Matthew draws on that mystical legacy to explore how darkness can become a place of revelation, grace, and spiritual rebirth rather than merely something to escape.
Matthew brings decades of work in Creation Spirituality, mysticism, theology, justice, and the wisdom of figures including Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, and Thomas Aquinas. His perspective is especially relevant for anyone asking how spiritual depth can support compassionate, creative, and morally engaged responses to a world in crisis.
What You’ll Learn
We’ll begin with St. John of the Cross and the extraordinary circumstances surrounding his “Dark Night of the Soul,” so you can understand why this mystical teaching continues to speak to times of suffering and upheaval. Matthew will reflect on the poem St. John wrote after escaping imprisonment, connecting its images of darkness with revelation, grace, and new life.
In this session, you’ll explore Matthew’s idea that we are living through a triple Dark Night affecting Mother Earth, global politics, and our individual souls, which means the crises around us cannot be separated entirely from the spiritual questions within us. From there, he will examine why naming darkness and evil matters if we hope to respond with greater clarity and conscience.
Along the way, Matthew will draw from mystics, artists, thinkers, and spiritual traditions to consider how creativity and moral imagination can help us move beyond helplessness. He will also explore the older meaning of apocalypse as revelation, so that upheaval can be approached not only as catastrophe but also as a moment that may expose what needs to be seen and transformed.
- How St. John of the Cross transformed imprisonment and suffering into the spiritual vision of the “Dark Night of the Soul”
- Why Matthew Fox sees our era as a triple Dark Night involving Mother Earth, global politics, and our individual souls
- How acknowledging darkness can become a first step toward responding to it more consciously
- Two ways of understanding evil: as a deprivation of goodness and as a force that can erode conscience and compassion
- Why spirituality that addresses suffering and injustice must engage more than comforting ideas of love and light
- How recognizing your participation in harmful systems can open the possibility of choosing a more conscious response
- Why Matthew shifts the question from “Why does evil exist?” toward “How do I respond?”
- How compassion, creativity, and moral imagination can support movement from helplessness toward moral agency
- How art and poetry can express new vision during periods of institutional and cultural crisis
- Why the ancient meaning of apocalypse as revelation can offer another way to understand periods of profound upheaval
Who This Is For
This event is for people who feel troubled, exhausted, or spiritually challenged by the crises unfolding in the world and want a deeper way to engage with them. It may resonate especially if you are trying to remain grounded, compassionate, authentic, and purposeful without ignoring suffering or retreating into despair.
It may also appeal to students of mysticism, contemplative spirituality, Creation Spirituality, theology, social justice, poetry, and the spiritual wisdom of figures such as St. John of the Cross. Whether you are newly curious about the Dark Night of the Soul or already familiar with mystical traditions, the session offers a framework for exploring how inner life and moral responsibility can meet.
- People wrestling with despair, uncertainty, or helplessness in response to world events
- Spiritual seekers interested in the Dark Night of the Soul and the wisdom of St. John of the Cross
- Those looking for a spirituality that can face suffering and injustice directly
- Readers and students of mysticism, theology, poetry, and contemplative traditions
- People interested in Matthew Fox’s Creation Spirituality and interfaith perspective
- Anyone exploring how compassion, creativity, and moral imagination can inform meaningful action
About Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox is a prolific author whose work has helped renew the ancient tradition of Creation Spirituality. His more than 40 books include Original Blessing, A Spirituality Named Compassion, and Christian Mystics.
His work has helped reawaken interest in mystics including Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, and Thomas Aquinas. Creation Spirituality, as Matthew teaches it, is earth-based, interfaith, welcoming of the arts and Indigenous wisdom, engaged with science, and committed to ecological, social, and gender justice.
Matthew earned his doctorate summa cum laude in the history and theology of spiritualities from the Institut Catholique de Paris. He was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years and later founded the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, where he served as president and professor until 2005.
His honors include the Gandhi King Ikeda Award from Morehouse College and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. Through decades of teaching, scholarship, and writing, Matthew has explored how mystical wisdom can help reconnect spirituality with creativity, justice, the sacredness of the Cosmos, and the challenges of contemporary life.
Endorsements
“Matthew Fox Will Go Down in History as One of the True Spiritual Geniuses of Our Age”
“Matthew Will Illumine Your Life as He Has Illumined Mine”
“Thanks to Matthew Fox, we can find a friend in Julian of Norwich, exactly the mental, emotional, and spiritual vaccine we need now.”
“In my twenties, 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’ 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. Among current spiritual theologians, no one has a more comprehensive vision of the necessary changes that must take place than Matthew Fox.”
“Father Matthew knows what the spirit’s life is all about and what is asked of it at this time. He opens the treasures of the Great Traditions and retrieves for us the relevant inspiring sources; but between the lines he lets the spirit of holiness breathe on us.”
“Traditionally, when big government in the church tries to silence a good soul, it indicates that the soul is often far ahead of the times. Matthew Fox is such a person. He writes simply, powerfully, about his life as a visionary. He continues now, as before, to give out the 21st-century keys to the kingdom.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Select any question below to reveal the answer.
When and where does the event take place?
Who is Matthew Fox?
What will I learn during this event?
What if I can’t attend live?
How long is the event?
Do I need any special equipment to participate?
Who is hosting the event?
Is this event suitable for beginners?
Is this event religious?
Will there be an opportunity to go deeper after the event?
What can I expect to feel during the event?
Is this event really free?
What is the “Dark Night of the Soul” in this event?
What does Matthew Fox mean by a “triple Dark Night”?
Why does Matthew connect apocalypse with revelation?
How does St. John of the Cross’s poem relate to the event?
How will the event approach the question of evil?
What does moving from helplessness to moral agency mean?
How do art and poetry fit into Matthew’s approach?
Why does Matthew say spirituality must go beyond love and light?
The contents of this website/e-mail are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This website does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
We are grateful to be of service and bring you these life-changing events free of charge. In order to do this, please note that whenever you click the links and purchase items, in most (not all) cases we will receive a referral commission. We may receive a listing fee for publishing this event.
Your support in purchasing through these links makes it possible for people in over 150 countries globally to attend these life-changing events for free. Thank you!
Register to receive event access details, reminders, and the available full-length recording following the event.
- Nov 21 2026
- 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: Nov 21 2026
- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
More Info
- Worldwide
