Matthew Fox holds a doctorate (received summa cum laude) in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. He was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years.

Seeking to establish a pedagogy friendly to learning spirituality, he established an Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality that operated for seven years at Mundelein College in Chicago and twelve years at Holy Names College in Oakland. For ten of those years at Holy Names College Cardinal Ratzinger, as chief Inquisitor and head of the Congregation of Doctrine and Faith tried to shut the program down. Ratzinger silenced Fox for one year in 1988 and forced him to step down as director. Three years later he expelled Fox from the Order and then had the program terminated. Fox then started his the University of Creation Spirituality (presently Wisdom University) nine years ago in Oakland, California. He now is president emeritus and a teaching professor there.

Matthew Fox has been renewing the ancient tradition of Creation Spirituality, a feminist tradtion, welcoming of the arts and artists, wisdom centered, prophetic and caring about eco-justice and social justice and gender justice issues. He has led a renewal of liturgical forms with “The Cosmic Mass” that mixes dance, techno and live music, dj, vj, rap and contemporary art forms with the western liturgical tradition. Fox believes that by "reinventing work, education and worship we can bring about a non-violent revolution on our planet" and has committed himself to this vision for many years. He resides in Oakland, California. He is author of 26 books.