Sarum College is an ecumenical study and research centre with an international reputation for excellence in theological education and spiritual reflection.
Applications for any of Sarum’s four MA programmes are now being accepted.
Sarum College offers a distinguished location for meetings, conferences, events and functions with full catering services.
Sarum College Bookshop is Salisbury's most established independent Christian and theological bookshop.
The Sarum College Library has an outstanding academic theological collection of more than 40,000 books covering all denominations.
Our MA modules are open to all. So you may enrol in any MA module as an “auditor” without registering for the full MA programme. An auditor participates in a module in exactly the same way as students on the MA, but does not prepare an essay at the end of it.
Foundations and Forms of Christian Spirituality (Core module 1)
This first Core Module introduces students to the study of spirituality through the medium of different classic spiritual traditions. It looks at the nature of spirituality in the Christian tradition; investigates whether we need tradition and traditions any more and considers the general principles of interpretation we should apply to reading or using historical texts.
The Contemporary Study of Christian Spirituality (Core module 2)
This module introduces students to contemporary approaches to the study of spirituality through theological, philosophical, psychological, political and aesthetic methodologies. An over-arching theme will be the investigation of understandings of spirituality in the ‘modern’ and ‘post-modern’ context.
Medieval Spirituality
This module examines the politics and cultural movements that affected the development of Christian spirituality during the medieval period. It considers the role of women in the period and assesses the impact of the Crusades on the development of relationships with Islam.
Western Christian Mysticism
This module gives students an overview of the historical development of the Western Christian Mystical tradition, and identifies and analyses key historical figures and movements within that tradition. Students will be encouraged to examine both apophatic and cataphatic strands of the mystical tradition. Continental and English strands of the tradition will be compared and contrasted.
Celtic Spirituality
This module explores some basic themes in Celtic spirituality and considers aspects of the Anglo-Saxon world of which they were a part. It investigates how the Celtic peoples viewed the world around them, as well as interpreting what that vision can mean for us today.
Pastoral Ministry and Christian Spiritual Direction
(This module is not a training course either in spiritual direction or in counselling.)
This module explores various resources for Christian ministry, focussing on the relation between ministry and spirituality broadly defined. The module addresses the central issue of pastoral identity and the place of experience and imagination in ministry. Students will be introduced to a variety of forms and traditions of spiritual guidance in the Christian tradition. Definitions of ‘spiritual direction’, ‘psychotherapy’ and ‘counselling’, as well as an understanding of their purpose and process, are explored.
Contemporary Spirituality
This module looks at recent developments in contemporary spirituality, particularly in the light of various writing on the ‘spiritual revolution’ within theology, sociology, psychology, philosophy and literary criticism. A range of authors and texts will be studied from both Christian and non-Christian traditions in order to gain a broader perspective on the spiritual quest in the contemporary context.
Embodying Wisdom
This module introduces some key concepts in the psychological and philosophical debates of the past 100 years that have moulded and influenced our contemporary understanding of Christian spirituality. In particular we consider the Cartesian, rationalist understanding of the self and critiques of this understanding. It also explores in more depth the work of particular thinkers such as Wittgenstein, Derrida and Jung and considers their influence on the way we understand spirituality today.
Spirituality: Public or Private Enterprise
This module examines a number of current crises (environmental, citizenship, healthcare) and consider how the Christian tradition has and is impacting on current thinking. It will encourage students to engage with both positive and negative aspects of the Christian tradition from ecological, political and pastoral perspectives and to appreciate the resources of other spiritualities (pagan and earth, other religious traditions, healthcare and wellbeing-related) . The module aims to enable students to construct spiritualities that can underpin a Christian lifestyle in the contemporary political context (ecotheology, public theology, and well-being theology).
Guided Reading Module
This module aims to provide students with the opportunity to pursue supervised study on a topic of their choice in any aspect of the field of Christian spirituality approved by the Academic Steering Group (see page 5). It enables them to extend further the critical skills needed to interpret primary sources and/or to assess the judgements and interpretations of secondary sources. This module may count as one of the Optional Modules for the MA in Christian Spirituality. A study and reading schedule will be agreed with an assigned tutor. The private study for this module may take place at any point during Part 1 of the course after the Core Modules have been completed, by arrangement with the assigned tutor. Private study will be supported by tutorials: one at the beginning of the project, one during and another towards the end.
Literature and Spirituality
This module examines a selection of novels and poetry from C17th to the present day in order to explore the various interconnections between literature and spirituality. Particular attention will be paid to the rehearsal of classical myth and the biblical theme of pilgrimage in modern English literature. Students will engage in close textual analysis of a selection of texts and will be encouraged to give their own critical readings and to develop their own understanding of the relationship between the literary imagination and the spiritual quest. Authors studied in previous years include George Eliot, T S Eliot, Joseph Conrad, William Golding, Charlotte Brontë, William Wordsworth and Iris Murdoch.
Sexuality and Spirituality
This module will acquaint students with the methodological tools required for an academic examination of the interface between sexuality and spirituality and considers the historical, theological and psychological background required for such a study. It investigates how sexuality has been viewed in the Christian tradition; how these attitudes inform Christian spirituality today; and how Christian spirituality can respond to the contemporary issues of gender and sexuality.
