Christian Spirituality Modules List

Foundations and Forms of Christian Spirituality (Core 1)
The module will introduce students to the roots and types of spirituality in the Christian tradition until the Reformation. It will explore a number of spiritual traditions within Christianity and enable students to place them in their historical and philosophical contexts. Students will become aware of the problems we face in matters of interpretation when dealing with classical spiritual texts and will be encourage to apply a range of interpretative methods to the texts they are introduced to.
Compulsory
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Jayme Reaves, & Guest Lecturers

++ Great intro module if you want to get to grips with the history of Christian spirituality

Modern and Post-Modern Perspectives on Christian Spirituality (Core 2)
This module will introduce students to the forms and types of Spirituality in the Christian tradition from the Reformation to the present day. Students will investigate the nature of Christian spiritualities in this period and consider the impact of modernism, postmodernism, feminism, and political theology on contemporary perceptions of Christian spirituality. Students will also investigate the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of academic engagement with Christian Spirituality.
Compulsory
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Jayme Reaves, & Guest Lecturers

++Great overview module if you want to understand the development of Christian Spirituality after the Reformation.

Embodied Encounters with the Divine
This module will introduce students to perspectives on Christian Spirituality that resist Neo-Platonic dualities. The module will centre the place of the body in Christian Spirituality and explore the nature of embodied experience in the Christian spiritual tradition. Students will be introduced to the concept of Christian Materialism and will analyse the contribution this can make to Christian Spirituality. This module will also draw in sacramental and ecological perspectives on the spiritual body.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr James Woodward, & Guest Lecturers

++ New Module – great for anyone interested in bodies and their place in theology/spirituality. Strong ecological element.

Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: Spiritual Development in Context
This module enables students to explore the variety of ways in which spiritual development takes place over the course of a lifetime. It includes study of various models of spiritual development and the theories that underpin them. Students will explore issues of particular concern for pastoral care in the contemporary context and engage with non-theological disciplines that provide pastoral care. Students will engage with scholarly debates on the relationship between spiritual development, suffering, and trauma. Students will examine the nature of spirituality and spiritual development for both the very young, the elderly, those who are differently abled, and those who experience trauma.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr James Woodward, & Guest Lecturers

++New Module. Great for those working in healthcare, chaplains, pastoral care and spiritual directors.

Western Christian Mysticism
This module gives students an overview of the historical development of the Western Christian Mystical tradition. The module enables students to identify and analyse key historical figures and movements within that tradition, as well as contemporary scholarly debates around Christian Mysticism. Students will be expected to examine both apophatic and cataphatic strands of Western Mysticism. Aspects of the English strand of the mystical tradition will be explored as well as that of Continental mystics.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell & Guest Lecturers

++ Ideal for anyone interested in better understanding mysticism. We read some mystical texts in detail.

Liturgy and Spirituality in Critical Dialogue
The module engages with the relationship between spirituality and liturgy. Attention will be paid to the complexity of the ways in which they relate, both conceptually and in practice. Students will have the opportunity to study specific examples of liturgical and spiritual practice from a variety of Christian traditions, and in doing so develop a critical understanding of the dynamics at work in the relationship between liturgy and spirituality.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell & Guest Lecturers

++For anyone interested in thinking through the place of spirituality in the church, especially those engaged with church life.

Monasticism, Mysticism, and Metaphysics: Key Themes in Medieval Christian Spirituality
This module will enable students to evaluate Western Medieval Schools of Christian Spirituality. It will examine the role of women in this period and evaluate their contributions to the Mysticism and politics of the period. Students will be encouraged to understand Medieval Spirituality in the broader context of medieval theological developments and explore key Christian spiritual texts from this period.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell & Guest Lecturers

++ The medieval period was the height of the flourishing of Christian Spirituality. This course will help you get to grips with key themes in this period.

Erotic Desires: Gender, Sexuality, and Spirituality
This module will provide students with the methodological tools to engage with a study of sexuality and gender as they relate to Christian Spirituality. Students will be enabled to understand how the Christian tradition has engaged with gender, sexuality, and spirituality and how that impacts on contemporary debates in these areas. Students will be encouraged to relate these insights to their own experience and to critically evaluate the current theological and spiritual concerns in matters of gender and sexuality.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell & Guest Lecturers

++ Exploring desire as a key element of Christian Spirituality. This course is ideal for LGBT people or those who work with LGBT community, including chaplains.

Guided Reading Module
This module provides the student with an opportunity to engage with a topic of their choice. Tutors are assigned according to expertise and guided reading is provided. The amount of tutorial time is increased as there are no lectures for this module.
Optional
Tutor assigned by topic

++ Please note this is not open to auditors

Contemporary Christian Spirituality: Theology & Praxis
This module will enable students to critically evaluate relationships between Christian Spirituality and non-Christian and non-religious Spiritualities. Students will have opportunity to explore contemporary expressions of Christian Spirituality around the world and draw these into dialogue with traditional philosophical and theological perspectives on Christian Spirituality. The module will also allow students to reflect on the import of inter-religious dialogue for contemporary conceptions of spirituality in general and Christian Spirituality in particular.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Jayme Reaves, Dr James Woodward, & Guest Lecturers

Good course for those interested in Christianity’s relationship with other faiths, and those interested in what it means to be spiritual but not religious.

Spirituality in Action: Vocation, Leadership and Personal Development
This module examines the nature and role of spirituality in a variety of faith-based and secular workplaces. It offers opportunity to critically analyse the nature of vocation, leadership, and personal development at the intersection of employment and spirituality alongside the place of work and organisations from spiritual and theological perspectives. It will examine the role of workplace chaplains and the integration of spiritual elements into workplaces. Students will critically evaluate the relationship between capitalism and spirituality as they reflect on the nature of the working life in a variety of forms.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell & Guest Lecturers

++ New Module, ideal for those interested in leadership and vocation and their relationship with spirituality. Well-suited to working people reflecting on own vocation.

Texts and the Christian Tradition
This module will focus on a deep exploration of a particular text as it relates to the Christian Tradition. The text will be either a particular biblical text(s) (e.g. The Gospel of Mark, The Sermon on the Mount, or the Genesis matriarchal narratives)  and/or a classic text from the Christian spiritual tradition (e.g. The Rule of St Benedict, The Interior Castle, The Cloud of Unknowing), with a different text chosen for each iteration of the module. The module will allow students to critically engage with the text using particular lenses with enable deeper consideration of its meaning, significance, impact and longevity for the Christian spiritual tradition, its adherents, and/or the wider cultural context.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Ellie McLaughlin & Guest Lecturers

++ New Module, ideal for anyone who wants to explore deeper into a specific text and really get to grips with it.

Relocating Religion: Cultural and Spiritual Re-Alignments
This module is primarily concerned with equivocations and uncertainties that surround the concepts and practices of religion in the modern period, including contemporary and popularly expressed preferences for ‘spirituality’. As regards ‘religion’, this module will draw upon previous historiographical and philosophical discussions but will focus mainly on how religion can be conceived and understood within the fields of theological and cultural anthropology. As regards the ‘relocations’ of religion drawn attention to in the title, the module will examine the different modalities in which religious practices have migrated or relocated – wittingly or unwittingly, willingly or unwillingly – in contemporary western society
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Ellie McLaughlin & Guest Lecturers

++Covalidated with the Theology, Imagination and Culture MA programme

Mass Culture: Theological Engagement and Spiritual Practice
The module considers the phenomena of mass consumer technological culture and new media as the backdrop to contemporary reflections on and engagements with spirituality and theology. Students will explore and analyse current habits of work, leisure, and communication, and lifestyle in distinction to traditional conceptions and explore the scale of the impact of current technologies and emerging norms on religious belief and practice. The module will examine the potential for leisure and lifestyle activities to mimic and replace religious modes of knowledge and identity production, examining the writings of sociologists, social anthropologists, social critics and theologians that address and/or interpret this phenomenon. The module will trace the emergence of the phenomena of popular culture, mass communication, and digital media—exploring how they have been conceptualised and critiqued—and students will be encouraged to develop critical responses to these technologies from the perspectives of theology and Christian spirituality.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Ellie McLaughlin & Guest Lecturers

++ Great for anyone interested in digital culture, popular culture, music, and thinking about these from the perspective of theology and spirituality.

The Eucharist: Theological Perspectives, Spiritual Practices and Artistic Representations
This module offers opportunity for students to examine the development of the Eucharist with reference to theological discourse, eucharistic practice, and artistic engagement with the Eucharist. Students will critically analyse the central place of the Eucharist in the Christian spiritual tradition. The module gives scope to critically engage with a wide range of artistic engagements with the Eucharist including visual art, poetry, prose, and film. The module will examine the contemporary context of Eucharist including current debates surrounding the Eucharist and its relationship to issues of justice, peace, and ethics.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Ellie McLaughlin & Guest Lecturers

++ New module for anyone who wants to reflect on the meaning, role and impact of the Eucharist on their own lives and spiritual practice.

Inspiration and Imaginations: Creative Expressions of the Spiritual Life
This module will enable students to understand the relationship between Christian Theology & Spirituality and art. This relationship will be placed in historical, cultural, and theological perspective, and the students will be encouraged to develop their own aesthetic and spiritual awareness alongside the possibilities for developing their own creative practice. This module will also enable students to critically engage with the place of art in Christian worship and the life of the Church.
Optional
Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Ellie McLaughlin & Guest Lecturers

++ This is a new module co-validated with Theology, Imagination and Culture. Ideal for artists and creative people who want to explore the place of art in the Christian tradition, and anyone interested in art, music, and literature.

Research Skills in Theology & Spirituality
This module is designed to help students learn to differentiate and reflect on particular methodologies and skills relevant to disciplines present in their studies, to determine which methods and skills (including both text and empirical research) are useful for particular research purposes, to identify ethical issues related to research conduct, and to develop those skills by demonstrating how they might be applied in future research.
Compulsory
Dr Jayme Reaves, Dr Karen O’Donnell, Dr Ellie McLaughlin, Dr James Woodward.

++ Open to anyone who wants to better understand how to do theology.