THSP619 - Spirituality in the Christian Tradition

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Incompatible

THCP612 Spirituality in the Christian Tradition

Teaching organisation

This unit will normally be offered in either intensive or online modes.  

As an intensive unit over four days, lectures will be interspersed with group discussions, videos and other learning activities which will encourage you to relate your learning to your own context, share your insights with other students, and listen to their perspectives.  

When offered as a fully online unit, involving 150 hours of focused learning, or the equivalent of 10 hours per week for 15 weeks, you will have the flexibility to work through four modules at your own pace. Synchronous tutorial sessions and asynchronous forum discussions will provide support for your learning.

Unit rationale, description and aim

It is increasingly common for people to describe themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’. However, when spirituality is disaffiliated from a religious tradition, it can easily dissipate. Christian spirituality is rooted in history. It has developed over two millennia and includes many classic treasures and ways of praying and acting that can still be life giving today. You may be motivated to undertake this unit purely by an interest in Christian spirituality, but if you are an employee or a member of a Christian organisation, you should benefit from examining the lived experience of Christian faith. This is particularly true if you are a teacher in a Christian school or engaged in some form of lay or ordained ministry. 

The aim of this unit is to help you explore some of the treasures of Christian spirituality. You will gain a deeper understanding of their sources and theological premises, as well as their historical, ecclesial and cultural contexts. With this grounding, you will be better placed to assess their ongoing relevance for the church, for the wider community and for you personally.  

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Identify and explain key insights of spiritual classics of the Christian tradition, including their sources and theological premises.  (GA1, GA4, GA5)

LO2 - Analyse the historical, ecclesial and cultural contexts of different forms of Christian spirituality. (GA1, GA4, GA5)

LO3 - Assess the ongoing relevance of these classics of Christian spirituality and evaluate how their insights might be applicable to your own life and work.  (GA1, GA4, GA5)

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

Content

Topics will include:

• An introduction to the sources and theological premises of Christian spirituality.
• The spirituality of the Gospels and the early Church
• The Holy Spirit: God’s personal presence within all creation
• Trinitarian spirituality
• Asceticism and the development of monasticism
• Franciscan spirituality
• Cataphatic and Apophatic spiritualities
• Ignatius of Loyola and the Spiritual Exercises
• Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross
• Ecumenical Approaches, such as Quaker spirituality and Methodist spirituality
• Christian spirituality in dialogue with other faith traditions, including the ‘Knowings’ of Australia’s First peoples and cultures
• Spiritualities of the heart and spiritualities of Justice
• Various spiritual practices such as journaling, mantras, the Consciousness Examen, Lectio Divina, intercessory prayer.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit will normally be offered in either intensive or online modes. 

Underlying the teaching and learning strategy are constructivist and andragogical principles which emphasise that students are active, adult learners who engage best when what they are learning is relevant to them and gives them the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning. The focus is therefore on student-centred learning, with consideration of how the learning content applies to the students themselves and their contemporary context.

As an intensive unit over four days, lectures will be interspersed with group discussions, videos and other learning activities which will encourage you to relate your learning to your own context, share your insights with other students, and listen to their perspectives. 

When offered as a fully online unit, involving 150 hours of focused learning, or the equivalent of 10 hours per week for 15 weeks, you will have the flexibility to work through four modules at your own pace. Synchronous tutorial sessions and asynchronous forum discussions will provide support for your learning.

In both modes the unit will focus on significant figures, texts, works of art and practices in the history of Christian spirituality. A broadly chronological approach will be taken, starting with the foundations of Christian spirituality in the first centuries of the Church and concluding with recent developments. You will be encouraged to reflect on the historical and cultural context of different spiritualities, ponder their theological, ecclesial, personal and professional implications, and consider their ongoing significance today.  

Assessment strategy and rationale

Critical reflection is a vital skill in tertiary education. It is also a crucial component of a healthy spirituality. Although the focus of this unit will be on spirituality as an academic discipline, this is a field of study which has a clear self-implicating dimension. Few if any students are entirely neutral when they come to study spirituality. It is, therefore, necessary to take one’s personal assumptions into account and be open to engaging with different perspectives and new ideas. The “critical” in “critical reflection” does not mean that you must express negative comments; rather, it is meant to encourage you to engage in scholarly analysis of an issue so that you can form a sound and reasonable judgement.

The first assessment task for this unit is designed to encourage you to reflect on insights which strike you as significant as you approach spirituality from an academic perspective. 

While the first assignment should be in essay form, you are not expected to adopt a neutral tone. In a reflective essay, the writer should be in the foreground. You are therefore encouraged to relate your learning in the unit to past experiences, highlighting anything that might have questioned, challenged or confirmed your previous assumptions. This task also provides an opportunity to look toward the future, identifying any insights which might have relevance to your life and work.

Over the course of the unit, a number of significant branches of Christian spirituality will be considered (including the Benedictine, Franciscan and Ignatian schools), texts (such as the “Shewings” of Julian of Norwich and the “Interior Castle” of Teresa of Avila) and practices (meditation, for example, and the use of art in prayer). The second task gives you the opportunity to select one of these schools, texts or practices and explore it in greater depth in a research essay.  

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Collins, Kenneth J. Exploring Christian Spirituality: An Ecumenical Reader. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000.

Dreyer, Elizabeth A. and Mark S. Burrows. Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 2005.

Dupré, Louis and Don Saliers. Christian Spirituality, Volume 3: Post Reformation and Modern. London: SCM, 1990.

Egan, Harvey. An Anthology of Christian Mysticism. 2nd Ed. Glendale, AZ: Pueblo, 1991.

Holder, Arthur, ed. Christian Spirituality: The Classics. London: Routledge, 2012.

McGinn, Bernard. The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism. Modern Library Classics Series. New York: Random House, 2006.

McGinn, Bernard and John Meyendorff, ed. Christian Spirituality, Volume 1: Origins to the Twelfth Century. London: SCM, 1989.

Rait, Jill, ed. Christian Spirituality, Volume 2: High Middle Ages and Reformation. London: SCM, 1989.

Sheldrake, Philip. A Brief History of Spirituality. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.

Thompson, Ross. SCM Study Guide to Christian Spirituality. London: SCM, 2008.