Spirituality in the 20TH

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Spirituality in the 20TH Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this unit, it is expected that participants will be able to: WESTERN • identify the major figures, ideas, images and movements that have shaped Western spirituality in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; spirituality IN THE 20TH • reflect on the differences between spirituality and religion and why these have AND 21ST CENTURIES intensified; • identify the variety of spiritualities in the contemporary era; with Emeritus Prof. David Tacey • reflect on recent attempts within Christian spiritualities to draw on the wisdom WellSpringWellSpring July to October 2020 and practices of Eastern traditions; CENTRE WellSpring Centre, 10 Y Street Ashburton • demonstrate an understanding of mysticism, its relationship to spirituality, and explore the ‘mystical turn’ in recent times. Bookings for 2020 series Cost: $500 for the series Book and pay at www.wellspringcentre.org.au/bookings Alternatively, this unit may be taken as a credited Supervised Reading Unit in an award of the University of Divinity. Fees are then payable through FEEHelp. Dorothy Morgan Registrar, Whitley College Email: [email protected] Phone: (03) 9340 8100 If you already a student within the University of Divinity, contact the registrar at your own Home College to arrange enrolment as a Supervised Reading Unit. WellSpring CENTRE WellSpring Centre 10 Y Street Ashburton VIC 3147 w: www.wellspringcentre.org.au e: [email protected] p: (03) 9885 0277 Introduction Reading List This series adopts an historical approach to the emergence of contemporary Essential Reading: spiritualities. It begins with the rise of critical-prophetic spiritualities in [set texts recommended for purchase, paperback copies (new or used) or eBooks] Evelyn Underhill, Simone Weil and Thomas Merton. The series considers the distinctive themes and types of spirituality, its relationship to mysticism, and the impact of secularisation. The series traces the erosion of previous hard Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality: A Brief History, 2nd edition (London: Wiley-Blackwell, boundaries within Christianity and between Christianity and other faiths. The 2013). borders between secular and sacred are challenged in postmodernity, leading David Tacey, The Postsecular Sacred (London & New York: Routledge, 2019). to the rise of postsecularity. The series explores the impact of the East on the West, the influences of feminism and therapy on holistic spiritualities, and the contemporary turn to practice. Recommended Reading: Sandra Marie Schneiders, ‘Religion and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals, or Partners?’ Facilitator: Emeritus Prof. David Tacey The Santa Clara Lectures 6, no.2 (Feb. 6, 2000). PDF file David was born in Melbourne but his young adult life David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality was spent in Alice Springs, central Australia. Growing (Sydney: Harper Collins, 2003; and London: Routledge, 2004). PDF file up alongside Aboriginal cultures influenced him greatly Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for Normal People (London: J. M. and he has maintained a lifelong interest in Aboriginal Dent & Sons, 1914). PDF file religions, indigenous health and wellbeing. He is known Simone Weil, Waiting for God (New York: Harper Collins, 2000) internationally, especially in the fields of spirituality studies, analytical psychology and psychoanalysis and is often Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1972) invited to speak on issues of spirituality, religious belief and indigenous cultures. Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality: Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and He is Emeritus Professor of Literature at La Trobe University in Melbourne and Christian Faith (London: Harper Collins Religious, 1989) Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Brian McLaren, Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practice (Nashville, Canberra. Tennessee: 2008) Pat Collins, Spirituality for the 21st Century: Christian Living in a Secular Age (Dublin: Dates for 2020 The Columba Press, 1999) Anne C. Jacobs, ‘Spirituality: History and Contemporary Developments, An • Thurs 30 July, 6.30 to 9pm • Thurs 10 September, 6.30 to 9pm Evaluation’, Koers – Bulletin for Christian Scholarship 78(1), Article 445. PDF • Thurs 6 August, 6.30 to 9pm • Thurs 17 September, 6.30 to 9pm file • Thurs 13 August, 6.30 to 9pm • Thurs 8 October, 6.30 to 9pm • Thurs 20 August, 6.30 to 9pm • Thurs 15 October, 6.30 to 9pm Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics • Thurs 27 August, 6.30 to 9pm • Thurs 22 October, 6.30 to 9pm Worldwide (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004) PDF file • Thurs 3 September, 6.30 to 9pm • Thurs 29 October, 6.30 to 9pm Location WellSpring Centre 10 Y Street, Ashburton VIC 3147.
Recommended publications
  • The Darkening Spirit: Jung, Spirituality, Religion, by David Tacey, London and New York, Routledge, 2013, 192 Pp., £28.99/US$47.95 (Paperback), ISBN 978-0415527033
    168 Book reviews The darkening spirit: Jung, spirituality, religion, by David Tacey, London and New York, Routledge, 2013, 192 pp., £28.99/US$47.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0415527033 The Darkening Spirit is one panel of a diptych by David Tacey on contemporary spirituality. Where his other book, Gods and Diseases (Routledge, 2013) explores medical and clinical manifestations of repressed spirit, The Darkening Spirit is an analysis of today’s social and cultural spiritual landscape. Tacey contends that Jungian psychology, and in particular Jung’s approach to spirituality, is uniquely well placed among psychological theories to respond to the current spiritual condition. Indeed, he goes so far as to claim that ‘[t]he twenty-first century could well be Jung’s century, just as the twentieth was Freud’s’ (p. 2). In evidence of this, he indicates how many postmodern scientific disciplines such as physics, biology and ecology today radically depart from past linear and reductive perspectives, and even in Freudian psychoanalysis interest is now turning to those areas that had previously led to Jung’s ostracism from the psychoanalytic movement. Tacey’s main thesis is that ‘[t]he spirit of the holy has fallen into the unconscious, and we can no longer find this light by the official means, but only by arduous and difficult dialogue with the unconscious’ (p. 4). This thesis accounts for the book’s title, inspired by Heidegger’s observation that a darkening of the world implies a darkening of spirit. According to Tacey, the light of the spirit can now only be discovered in the dark, having become more faint and diffuse through its association with darkness.
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  • Newsletter Volume 78 - Term 3, 2015
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