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Modern & Postmodern Perspectives on Christian Spirituality (2025)

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

Home Short Courses Contemporary Spirituality Human Flourishing Christian Spirituality Modern & Postmodern Perspectives on Christian Spirituality (2025)

Modern & Postmodern Perspectives on Christian Spirituality (2025) course

This module will examine key movements within and connected with Christian Spirituality in the 20th and 21st century and consider how they fit within the social projects of modernity and postmodernity. Significant focus will be given to Black and postcolonial spiritualities, spiritualities of activism, biblical hermeneutics, secularisation, mysticism in modernity and postmodernity, Orthodox spirituality and Jewish-Christian relations in this period.

Dr Michael Hahn will teach an introductory session on how Christian spirituality can be approached in ‘modernity’ and ‘postmodernity’ both in terms of how it is lived out and practised and also how such approaches might study spirituality.

He will then teach two sessions on modern and postmodern mysticism. The first looks at major writers of the 20th century such as Evelyn Underhill and Thomas Merton, and the second looks at how writers who are atheist or who struggle with religion such as Georges Bataille and Annie Dillard fit into the development of mystical theologies.

Dr Susie Snyder will teach a session on modern mysticism and social action, drawing particularly from the work of Dorothee Soelle and Gloria Anzaldua.

Dr James Roberts will lead a session on modern orthodox spirituality, considering figures like Mother Maria Skobtsova and Nikolai Berdyaev. James will then teach a session on Jewish-Christian relations in the 20th and 21st century and consider how this links to spirituality.

Dr Carlton Turner will teach two sessions on Black Spiritualities and Decolonial Spiritualities. The first introduces some of the key considerations of Black Spiritualities as experienced across the world, grounded primarily in the African Caribbean context, and the second examines global calls to a decolonial ethics.

Dr Pollyanna Magne will lead a session on Christian spirituality practices today, focusing primarily on spiritual direction/accompaniment, considering how it draws on Christian heritage but also engages with secular mindfulness.

Dr Jayme Reaves will first lead a session on spiritualities of activism, exploring particularly the role of memory within this. Then, Jayme will introduce feminist and womanist biblical hermeneutics to consider how we make meaning of biblical texts and particular contexts today.

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

Learn more about postgraduate study in Christian Spirituality

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.  The audit fee and hospitality prices are reviewed annually with any changes effective from 1 July.

The (residential) Modern & Postmodern Spirituality ticket sales has ended!
The (non-residential) Modern & Postmodern Spirituality ticket sales has ended!

Details

Dates & Times

17 - 20 Feb 2025
Expired!
Day 1 - Starts at 2pm, Day 2 & 3 - Full days, Day 4 - finishes by 2:30pm

Location

Sarum College

Category

Contemporary Spirituality
Human Flourishing
Christian Spirituality

Tutor(s)

Dr Michael Hahn
Guest Tutors

Course code

Other Notes

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

The course fee includes lunch and refreshments on each day of the course.

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

For queries, please contact maadministrator@sarum.ac.uk

What our students say

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

Tutor(s)

Dr Michael Hahn

Programme Leader for Postgraduate Programmes in Christian Spirituality

Guest Tutors

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