James Conlon is the director of the Sophia Center at Holy Names University (Oakland, California) where he develops and teaches courses in spirituality and culture, theological education, social and ecological justice, and community organization. He is a frequent lecturer, public speaker, and retreat leader. Conlon is the author of eight books and has dedicated this one to "the emergent universe and the divine creative energy that permeates and infuses sacredness all around."
In this visionary work, Conlon has created a thought-provoking mix of memoir, historical tidbits, theological and cosmological probes, tributes to his mentors, and a summing up of the possible future for Sophia Center.
We see in the formative experiences of his life a love of science and the natural world; a dream of becoming a priest; his high regard for Teilhard de Chardin as a pioneer of evolution as a sacred story; his appropriation of insights flowing from Vatican II; and his love of poetic musings as a counterpoint to prose in his books. He affirms Matthew Fox's creation spirituality for being "designed to activate the imagination and nurture creative approaches to healing, its fresh and compassionate empowerment [which] has increased our focus on justice and the transformation of people and the planet."
The "invisible excursion" in Conlon's life comes when he is invited to come to Holy Names for his fall sabbatical. Then in 1996, Fox left the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality and formed the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland.
Conlon and others created Sophia Center as a wisdom school (listening heart) celebrating Earth (communion), Art (differentiation), and Spirit (interiority). Their foundational focus was the work of Thomas Berry as a scholar, a monk, and a cultural historian.
Some of his guiding principles have been adopted by Sophia Center including:
• The universe reveals ultimate mystery.
• The planet earth is a unity.
• The universe is a physical and a conscious reality.
• The universe celebrates itself through us.
• The personal and the cosmic are one.
The closing sections of this inspiring paperback charts the possible futures for Conlon and Sophia Center as they endeavor to carry on the "Great Work" which Thomas Berry delineated so eloquently before his death.
