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Embodied Encounters with the Divine (2023)

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About|Details|What our students say|Tutor(s)|Related short courses

Home Short Courses Christian Spirituality Contemporary Spirituality Embodied Encounters with the Divine (2023)

About the Embodied Encounters with the Divine (2023) course

This course centres on the question of the place of the body in Christian Spirituality. We will explore how different dimensions of bodily existence impact the Christian relationship with God, the natural world and other creatures (human and otherwise).

This course will be led by Dr Michael Hahn who will provide an introduction to the place of the body in Christian spirituality, and consider ascetical dimensions to spirituality and the role of the body in religious experience.

Dr Dulcie Dixon McKenzie will teach on physical movements within the liturgy as they relate to Black Pentecostal spirituality.

The Revd Jarel Robinson-Brown will lead two sessions on the place of the body in Black spirituality and in Queer spirituality and bring these two topics into dialogue.

Dr Eleanor McLaughlin will introduce the field of disability theology and particularly consider the role of technology for embodied spiritualities and the questions disability theology raises for the valuing of self.

The Revd Lyndon Webb will use the New Materialist framework to explore the roles of materiality and embodiment in spirituality and particularly how this framework impacts our spiritual responses to climate change.

Professor James Woodward will lead us in an exploration of the vulnerabilities and frailties of the human body, considering how our stories are shaped by language, metaphor and culture and how we need humanity and imagination to nurture compassion.

Dr Jayme Reaves will introduce the place of trauma in embodied spiritualities and consider particularly how a consideration of Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse can contribute to our understandings of the role of the body in Christian spirituality.

This is a postgraduate course open to ‘auditors‘ e.g. those not enrolled for academic credit.

What does it mean to audit a course? 

This course would make an excellent addition to a study break, retreat or sabbatical in the beautiful Salisbury Cathedral Close, where residential participants enjoy full board, access to the library and to the pattern of liturgy at Salisbury Cathedral.

Whether it’s cultural events, sightseeing (Stonehenge is nearby for example) or shopping — there’s plenty to do if you’d like to extend your stay the weekend before and after the course. For ideas, visit Salisbury Cathedral Close attraction websites to see what’s on Sarum’s doorstep. Visit the Wiltshire Creative website to view events at nearby Salisbury Playhouse and the Salisbury Arts Centre. The Experience Salisbury website has an excellent city-wide listing of forthcoming events around the city.

Need financial assistance? View our list of grantmaking trusts

Enrolled students also may attend teaching weeks for modules in addition to the modules which they are studying for credit, by permission of the Programme Leader. Student rates for hospitality costs during a teaching week currently are: £250 (en-suite), £200 (standard) and £60 (non-residential), along with an educational fee of £125 per booking. The audit fee and hospitality prices are reviewed annually with any changes effective from 1 July.

 

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Details

Dates & Times

05 - 08 Jun 2023
Expired!
Day 1 - Starts at 2pm, Day 2 & 3 - Full days, Day 4 - finishes by 2:30pm

Location

Sarum College

Category

Christian Spirituality
Contemporary Spirituality

Tutor(s)

Dr Michael Hahn
Guest Tutors

Course code

2772

Other Notes

This is a postgraduate course open to those not enrolled for academic credit. It will be held onsite at Sarum College.

All ticket options include lunch and refreshments on each day of the course.

Residential tickets include an evening meal along with B&B.

What our students say

PhD Research Programmes

Visual Artist Claire Reed

The complex and sometimes fractious relationship between contemporary art and religion has intrigued me throughout my art career, informing my direction as an artist. It has led me to work in sacred spaces with their immediate and wider communities, to study an MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture at Sarum College, and recently to become artist–researcher at Leo Baeck College of Jewish scholarship and learning.

My aim is to examine the extent to which this creative approach might generate fruitful inter-religious theological insights within a Jewish and Christian ministry training context.

Sarum College combines an open-minded embrace of the imagination and the arts with a supportive, questioning and diverse community. Crucially for me, the Sarum-Winchester PhD programme is one of the very few UK university programmes to offer a hybrid thesis in art and theology in which the creative process and resulting art output along with a written critical component are presented for examination.

This PhD research is a key part of my development as an artist engaged with theology and inter-religious dialogue.

Read full article

Stimulating and Challenging

What is Successful Ageing? led by James Woodward

I enjoyed the course immensely from beginning to end – the seamless interweaving of knowledge, ideas and research and the linking with belief and faith.

The content was stimulating, challenging, thought provoking and I was greatly appreciative of the contributions and questions from other participants, your considered and sensitive responses and integration with your presentations.

Thank you!

 

 

Netflix, Theology and Pastoral Practice

Peter Butchers on his MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture student experience

How do cultural tropes, like those found in Black Mirror, help bridge the gap between what academic theology espouses and what the everyday Christian believes? In his research as a student on the MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture, Peter Butchers explored platonic philosophy, digital theology and eschatology, and pastoral practice around death and dying.

Read more 

Rewarding Sabbatical Stay

The Revd Greg Syler, is Rector of Ascension & St. George’s, Resurrection Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC USA, spent part of his ministry sabbatical at Sarum College in spring 2022.

His account of the experience begins: ‘I loved spending nearly three weeks of my ministry sabbatical at Sarum College earlier this year.

Not only did I rest, and rest well in the comfortable care of the Sarum College staff, I experienced very significant renewal and fresh insights.’

Read more

The Road Not Taken

Sarum Graduate Mike Truman

January 2022

Five years ago, I told my Warden of Readers that I would not be renewing my licence when it expired in 2019, as I thought my faith was becoming too unorthodox for a Church of England licensed lay minister. As someone who knew me well, she challenged me to actively explore what I did still believe. Thus started the journey that ended last August with the dissertation completing my MA in Theology Imagination and Culture (MATIC) at Sarum College.

Read more 

Clergy Study Breaks

The opportunity for clergy to get away occasionally from their own context, to have an overnight stay in the beautiful setting of Sarum College and all that the Salisbury Cathedral Close offers is hugely valuable. All the clergy I have suggested who have spent 24hrs at Sarum College have benefit greatly from the experienced mentoring where they can talk, reflect, think, plan and pray.

The support and encouragement they receive is excellent and has a positive on their on going ministry. This is something the Diocese of Rochester encourages and supports financially in preparation for their clergy preparing for Extended Ministerial Development Leave (Sabbatical).

— Canon Christopher Dench, Diocese of Rochester Director of Formation and Ministry

Retreats and Private Stays

When I arrived, exhausted and sensitive, I was grateful not to be asked by Reception were I came from, whether I had had a good journey etc. That was the kind of hospitality I needed: a non-intrusive welcome that was found in ancient cultures and still survives in some societies today, where the host asks questions about a stranger and his journey only when the visitor has rested and been given food and drink.

— guest on a private stay

Biblical Study Breaks

I just found it very refreshing – as a leader of a church I don’t get as many opportunities to step out and do courses (my fault, not the church!) and so I loved it. I think it was run really well online – which is a difficult medium to work with.

Pádraig Ó Tuama (pictured) was outstanding in his balance of getting us to engage and sharing his learning. Also the quick availability of resources provided by Sarum College Librarian Jayne Downey was excellent.

— course participant, Story Theology: Narrative Approaches to Scripture

Tutor(s)

Dr Michael Hahn

Programme Leader for Postgraduate Programmes in Christian Spirituality

Guest Tutors

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