“The Cosmic Christ and the Two Books of Creation” with Fr. Vincent Pizzuto, PhD (Virtual)

From its most ancient roots, Christianity has held that there are Two Books of Scripture: the little book of the Bible and the big book of Creation. Having the same Author, these sacred books cannot ultimately contradict. However, in the modern era, with the rise of science and the age of reason, the two books of scripture were severed, depriving each of their intimate connection and deeper spiritual meanings. In scripture this manifested as a precipitous rise in biblical literalism in the 20^th Century, while in creation it reduced the inherent value of creatures to whether or not they were valuable to humanity. Both of these interpretive shifts have had devastating consequences for our spiritual lives and our planet – now on the brink of ecological collapse. In this two-hour presentation, Fr. Vincent Pizzuto will help us frame how we might read both “books” through the unifying lens of the Cosmic Christ, the Word-made-Flesh, in whom Scripture and Creation find their ultimate unity and fulfillment.

Professional Bio

Father Vincent Pizzuto, Ph.D. is Professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. in New Testament Exegesis from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium (2003). He has since published and presented internationally in the areas of New Testament Christology, ecological discipleship, marriage equality, inter-religious dialogue, Christian mysticism and contemplative Christian spirituality. In 2018 he published his second book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life, with Liturgical Press, to be released in Spanish, Contemplar a Cristo: Los Evangelios y la vida interior, in January 2022 by Desclée de Brouwer. As an Episcopal priest Fr. Vincent serves as Vicar of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church and Retreat House in Inverness, California. Working for the advancement of contemplative Christianity, he has reinvigorated the mission and ministry of St. Columba’s through the introduction of contemplative eucharistic liturgies, public lectures, online courses, directed retreats, thought provoking sermons, an online blog and a weekly online study of his book through the Thomas Keating Meditation Chapel.