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Erotic Desires: Gender, Sexuality, and Spirituality (2022)

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Home Short Courses Contemporary Spirituality Erotic Desires: Gender, Sexuality, and Spirituality (2022)

About the Erotic Desires: Gender, Sexuality, and Spirituality (2022) course

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

The module explores the place of eros in the Christian spiritual tradition. When expressing love for God, Christians had plenty of terms for “love” to choose from (e.g. agape) and yet it is eros that has been most consistently used in terms of expressing desire for God. We will be examining why this might be the case and what the implications of this might be. A central text for this module will be the biblical text of the Song of Songs.

We will be drawing this attention to eros into dialogue with contemporary discussions around gender and sexuality, considering feminist and “masculinist” spiritualities, trans and nonbinary spiritualities, queer spiritualities as well as desire and sexuality in the Christian tradition.

This course covers the methodological tools to engage with a study of sexuality and gender as they relate to Christian spirituality.

The aim is 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.

This course is ideal for LGBT people and those who work with these groups, including chaplains, those in advocacy organisations.

What does it mean to audit a course? 

The teaching team

Mark Burrows is a scholar of historical theology, an award-winning poet and translator of German literature. His most recent volumes of poems are The Chance of Home. Poems (2018), and, with Jon M. Sweeney, two collections of meditative poems inspired by the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart: Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart (2017) and Meister Eckhart’s Book of Secrets (2019).  Visit his website

Rachel Mann is a priest, writer and scholar based in Manchester. Author of 12 books, she writes and broadcasts about everything from sexuality and gender identity to prayer and liturgy to popular culture and literary theory. Visit her website

Will Moore is an Anglican writer and speaker and is training for priesthood at Westcott House, Cambridge. His research in the areas of gender, masculinity, sexuality, violence, and how they intersect with Christianity and the Bible has been published in academic journals, edited volumes, and online blogs. His first book, Unravelling Biblical Masculinities, will be published with SCM Press in 2022.

Karen O’Donnell is the programme leader for the MA in Christian Spirituality at Sarum College. She is a feminist practical theologian with particular interests in trauma and in the relationship between theology and spirituality. Her most recent publication is The Dark Womb: Re-Conceiving Theology through Reproductive Loss (SCM Press, 2022).

Jayme Reeves is a public theologian and the Director of Academic Development at Sarum College. She is co-host of the Outlander Soul podcast, which looks at the Outlander book series by Diana Gabaldon as sacred text by analysing it through a theological, religious, and spiritual lens and engaging with fans about its sacred role in their lives. Visit her website

Lyndon Webb studied modern languages at Cambridge before moving to Dorset and spending four years living in intentional communities. He has a particular interest in the intersection between queer theology, ecology, and the Song of Songs. In 2019, he began his curacy at the church of St John the Baptist in Broadstone, Poole.

Catherine Williams is an Anglican priest with a portfolio ministry as a Christian writer, retreat leader and spiritual director. Catherine contributes to popular spirituality resources including Daily Reflections, Pray-As-You-Go and Fresh from the Word. She edits The Canterbury Preacher’s Companion and can be heard daily online, leading the offices on the Daily Prayer and Time to Pray apps.

The Non-residential auditor # ticket sales has ended!
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Details

Dates & Times

20 - 23 Jun 2022
Expired!
Day 1 - Starts at 2pm, Day 2 & 3 - Full days, Day 4 - finishes by 4pm

Location

Sarum College

Category

Contemporary Spirituality

Tutor(s)

Dr Karen O’Donnell
Guest Tutors

Course code

2642

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

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)

karen-o'donnell

Dr Karen O’Donnell

Programme Leader for Contemporary Spirituality Studies

Guest Tutors

View all courses

Taster Evening July 2022

26 July 2022

Thinking about further study?

View course

Taster Evening November 2022

14 November 2022

Thinking about further study?

View course
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