Course Texts:
Required
Timothy O’Connell. Making Disciples: A Handbook of Christian Moral Formation. New York: Crossroad, 1998.
Marjorie Thompson. Soul Feast. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1995/2005.
John R. Tyson. Invitation to Christian Spirituality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Recommended
Diana L. Hayes, Hagar’s Daughters: Womanist Ways of Being in the World (Madaleve Lecture in Spirituality: 1995). Notre Dame, IN: Saint Mary’s College, 1995.
Beverly J. Lanzetta, Radical Wisdom: A Feminist Mystical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005
Christine D. Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999.
Aim of the Course:
The study of spirituality is self-implicating and participatory. We will be attempting to understand spiritual and moral formation from the outside—how and why it works—as well as from the inside, through participating in Marjorie Thompson’s Soul Feast.
Course Requirements:
1. Weekly reflection papers on reading from Soul Feast 50 points
2. Attendance and class participation 20 points
3. 10-page final research paper 30 points
Additional information on assignments will be distributed in class.
Course Schedule of Topics and Readings:
Sept. 13: Introduction to course: Ethics and Spirituality
Sept. 20: Spiritual Reading
Reading: Thompson, Chapters 1 and 2; O’Connell, Chapters 1-4
Sept. 27: Prayer
Reading: Thompson, Chapter 3; Tyson, “Origin of Alexandria,” “John Cassian,” “Mechthild of Magdeburg,” “Thomas Aquinas,” “Teresa of Avila,” “Jeanne Guyon,” “Walter Rauschenbusch,” “Karl Barth”
Oct. 4: Worship
Reading: Thompson, Chapter 4; O’Connell, Chapters 5-8; Tyson, “Didache,” “Irenaeus of Lyon,” “Basil the Great,” “Maximus the Confessor”
Oct. 11: Fasting
Reading: Thompson, Chapter 5; additional reading to be announced
Oct. 18: Examination of Conscience
Reading: Thompson, Chapter 6; Tyson, “Augustine of Hippo,” “Martin Luther,” “Bartholeme de las Casas,” “Ignatius of Loyola,” “Soren Kierkegaard”
Oct. 25: Spiritual Direction
Reading: Thompson, Chapter 7; Tyson, “John Calvin,” “Brother Lawrence,” “John and Charles Wesley,” “Jonathan Edwards,” “Horace Bushnell”
Nov. 1: Hospitality
Reading: Thompson, Chapter 8; Christine Pohl, Chapters 1, 2, 8 and 9
Nov. 8: The Role of Story and Imagination
Reading: O’Connell, Chapters 9-11; additional reading to be announced
Nov. 15: Mysticism and the Dark Night of the Soul
Reading: Tyson, “Pseudo Dionysius,” “Meister Eckhart,” “Catherine of Siena,” “Julian of Norwich,” “Thomas a’ Kempis,” “John of the Cross,” “Evelyn Underhill,” “Simone Weil”
Nov. 29: Feminist Spirituality and Ethics
Reading: Beverly Lanzetta, Chapter 5-8; Tyson, “Rosemary Radford Ruether”
Dec. 6: Black and Womanist Spirituality and Ethics
Reading: Tyson, “Howard Thurman,” “Martin Luther King, Jr.,” “James Cone,” “Desmond Tutu;” Diana Hayes, Hagar’s Daughers
Dec. 13: Discipleship: Developing a Rule of Life
Reading: Thompson, Chapter 9; O’Connell, Chapters 12-Conclusion; Tyson, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer”
