I am a workshop-leader and group facilitator. In professional terms, I am NOT a spiritual director, theologian or Scripture scholar (despite an intense interest in all those subjects), and I am not professionally trained to facilitate RETREATS.
I list below the topics I am happy to explore and facilitate, with any audience, religious or otherwise.
The following topics can be explored via:
a) An EVENING LECTURE: providing a general outline of the topic and some practical implications for our time.
b) A ONE DAY SEMINAR: This provides a more detailed overview and an opportunity for dialogue and particpation.
c) A THREE-DAY or WEEKEND WORKSHOP: The best format for a more thorough exploration with maximum opportunity for participant involvement.
TOPIC 1: THE NEW COSMOLOGY: Its scientific, cultural and spiritual sigificance today.
Key Texts:
1. Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry (1992), THE UNIVERSE STORY.
2. Judy Cannato (2006), RADICAL AMAZEMENT.
3. Joel Primack & Nancy Abrams (2006), THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.
4. Amy Corzine (2008), THE SECRET LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE.
Excellent web page: http://www.evolutionarychristianity.org
TOPIC 2: EVOLUTIONARY FAITH: How the story of evolution, - in terms of cosmos, earth, and humanity - unravels the benign mystery within which everything is held in being.
Key Texts:
1. John F. Haught (2000), GOD AFTER DARWIN
(2003), DEEPER THAN DARWIN.
2. Michael Dowd (2007) THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION!
3. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2008), ANCESTRAL GRACE
4. WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? (Journal) (Jan-Mar, 2007).
Web page:www.evolutionarychristianity.org
TOPIC 3: ENCOUNTERING GOD IN OUR HUMAN STORY: The sacred at work through our 7,000,000 year evolution, and its significant implications for spirituality and theology.
Key Texts:
1. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2008), ANCESTRAL GRACE
2. Ann Gibbons (2006), THE FIRST HUMANS
3. Steve Taylor (2005), THE FALL
4. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (Special Edition), Vol.16 (No.2), 2006
5. Web page: www.becominghuman.org
TOPIC 4: MYSTICISM FROM A COSMIC PERSPECTIVE - exploring the awakening sense of mystery in the contemporary world.
Key texts:
1.William Johnston (1995), MYSTICAL THEOLOGY.
2. John Horgan (2003), RATIONAL MYSTICISM.
3. Chris Clarke (2005), WAYS OF KNOWING: SCIENCE & MYSTICISM TODAY.
4. Amy Corzine (2008), THE SECRET LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE
Web page: http://www.wccm.org
TOPIC 5: THE CHANGING NATURE OF CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY - and the implications for how we understand religion today.
Key Texts:
1. Ursula King (2009), THE SEARCH FOR SPIRITUALITY
2. Gordon Lynch (2007), THE NEW SPIRITUALITY: An Introduction to Belief beyond Religion.
3, Miriam Therese Winter (2009), PARADOXOLOGY: Spirituality in a Quantum Universe
4. Matthew Fox (2000), SINS OF THE SPIRIT, BLESSINGS OF THE FLESH.
5. Carrette, Jeremy & Richard King (2005), SELLING SPIRITUALITY
TOPIC 6: The KINGDOM OF GOD: The heart and soul of our Christian Faith
KEY TEXTS:
1. John Fullenbach (1995), THE KINGDOM OF GOD
2. Richard A Horsley (2003), JESUS AND EMPIRE
3. John Dominic Crossan (2007), GOD AND EMPIRE.
TOPIC 7: UNDERSTANDING JESUS IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP: The challange of Christology today - theoretically and pastorally. (sometimes combined with topic 5 above).
KEY TEXTS:
1. Boulton, David (2008), WHO ON EARTH WAS JESUS?: The Modern Quest for the Jesus of History.2. Isherwood, Lisa (1999), LIBERATING CHRIST.
3. Wink, Walter (2002), THE HUMAN BEING: JEUS AND THE ENIGMA OF THE SON OF MAN.
4. Bourgeault, Cynthia (2008), THE WISDOM JESUS
TOPIC 8: JUSTICE-MAKING, including an oversiew of globalisation: an exploration of the challenge to work for justice today, the spirituality underpinning it, and a review of practical strategies.
KEY TEXTS:
Walter T. Anderson, (2004), ALL CONNECTED NOW: LIFE IN THE FIRST GLOBAL CIVILISATION
Rosemary Radford Ruether (2005), INTEGRATING ECOFEMINISM, GLOBALIZATION AND WORLD RELIGIONS.
John Cavanagh (Ed.)(2002), ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION.
Margaret Swedish (2008), LIVING BEYOND THE "END OF THE WORLD".
WEB PAGES:
International Forum on Globalization: http://www.ifg.org
Excellent Resource on Ethical Investment: http://www.eiris.org
TOPIC 9: QUANTUM THEOLOGY: "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is a cental principle of Quantum Physics with major implications for every field of learning including theology.
KEY TEXTS:
Judy Cannato (2006), RADICAL AMAZEMENT
Mark Hathaway & Leonardo Boff (2009), THE TAO OF LIBERATION
Adrian B. Smith (2008), GOD, ENERGY and the FIELDMiriam Therese Winter (2009), PARADOXOLOGY: SPIRITUALITY IN A QUANTUM UNIVERSE.
TOPIC 10: BEYOND TRIBALISM IN RECLAIMING OUR HUMANITY.
KEY TEXTS:
Chris Stringer & Robin McKie (1996), AFRICAN EXODUS: THE ORIGINS OF MODERN HUMANITY.
Jason Hill (2000), BECOMING A COSMOPOLITAN.
TOPIC 11: The GREAT EARTH MOTHER GODDESS: A fiction of our ancient past, or an enduring archetype haunting the contemporary spiritual imagination? I opt for the latter interpretation and explore its context and meaning for our time.
KEY TEXTS:
Carol Christ (1997), THE REBIRTH OF THE GODDESS.
Rosemary Radford Ruether (2005), GODDESSES AND THE DIVINE FEMININE
Paul Reid-Bowen (2007), GODDESS AS NATURE
Tim Ward (2006), SAVAGE BREAST: One Man's Search for the Goddess (www.savagebreastbook.com)
FEMINIST THEOLOGY, (Journal) Entire Volume (Vol 13.2, Jan.,2005)
TOPIC 12: NEW UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: The energising source of everything in Creation
Key Texts:
Mark Wallace (2005), FINDING FOD IN THE SINGING RIVER
Kirsteen Kim (2007), THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE WORLD
Denis Edwards (2004), BREATH OF LIFE
Wolfgang Vondey
(2010), CELEBRATING THEOLOGY: Christian Doctrine from a Spirit-driven Perspective.
TOPIC 13: PARADIGM SHIFTS, exploring the nature and impact of contemporary change in terms of both systems and persons.
KEY TEXTS:
Margaret J. Wheatley (1994), LEADERSHIP AND THE NEW SCIENCE.
Walter T. Anderson (2004), ALL CONNECTED NOW: LIFE IN THE FIRST GLOBAL CIVILISATION
Margaret Swedish (2008), LIVING BEYOND THE "END OF THE WORLD"
Gerard Loughlin (2007), QUEER THEOLOGY: RETHINKING THE WESTERN BODY
Web-page: http://www.paradigmshifts.iwarp.com
TOPIC 14: CONSCIOUSNESS & THE POWER OF INTENTION: The psychic energy that underpins everything in creation. As conscious beings, humans appropriate consciousness from the conscious universe
KEY TEXTS:
Wayne W. Dyer (2004), THE POWER OF INTENTION
Jan Phillips (2006), THE ART OF ORIGINAL THINKING
Mark Epstein (2005) OPEN TO DESIRE
http://www.theintentionexperiment.com
TOPIC 15: BEING ADULT IN OUR FAITH. Passing on the faith is widely seen as a pedagogy with the focus on children and youth, but one of the most urgent needs of the present time is a faith pedagogy for Adults honouring the principles of Adult Education.
KEY TEXTS:
Ori Brafmani & Rod Beckstrom (2006), THE UNSTOPPABLE POWER OF LEADERSLESS ORGANIZATIONS.
James Fowler (1982), STAGES OF FAITH
Nicola Slee (2004), WOMEN'S FAITH DEVELOPMENT
Edmund O'Sullivan & Alia (2002), EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES OF TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING.
F. Segovia & R. Sugirtharajah (2009), A POSTCOLONIAL COMMENTARY on the NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS
TOPIC 16: HUMAN GROWTH: INTIMACY & SEXUALITY
Key Texts:
George Leonard (1983), THE END OF SEX
Farley, Margaret A. (2008), JUST LOVE: A Framework for Chrstian Sexual Ethics
Thomas Moore (1998), THE SOUL OF SEX.
James and Evelyn Whitehead (2008), HOLY EROS: PATHWAYS TO A PASSIONATE GOD.
TOPIC 17: EUCHARIST FROM A PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE: The prevailing theology and liturgy of the Eucharist is largely framed in terms of the central role of the male priest. Other models and approaches are possible, even within the inherited tradition.
Key texts:
1. William Crockett (1989), EUCHARIST: SYMBOL OF TRANSFORMATION
2. Susan Ross (1998), EXTRAVAGANT AFFECTIONS: A Feminist Sacramental Theology.
3. McGowan, Andrew (1999), ASCETIC EUCHARISTS.
4. Hal Taussig (2009), IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE MEAL
TOPIC 18: THE TRANSFORMATION OF DESIRE: Desire is a word with several ambiguous meanings, an aspect of human existence which we need to reclaim and rehabilitate as we grow more deeply into a fresh sense of our planetary and cosmic identity.
KEY TEXTS:
1. Wayne Dyer (2004), THE POWER OF INTENTION.
2. Mark Epstein (2005), OPEN TO DESIRE
3. Wendy Farley (2005), THE WOUNDING AND HEALING OF DESIRE.
4. Veronica Goodchild (2001), EROS AND CHAOS.
TOPIC:19: THE RELIGIOUS-MONASTIC LIFE (The vowed life) Modules:
MODULE 1: Historical Insights to the Current crisis in Religious Life.
MODULE 2: Major Issues Facing Apostolic Religious Today
MODULE 3: Liminality and the Prophetic Horizons of the Vowed Life.
MODULE 4: Understanding the Vows in the contemporary World.
MODULE 5: Coping With decline and the death of an old model.MODULE 6: Paradigm Shifts and the Future of Religious LIfe.
Key Texts:
1. Sandra Schneiders (2000), FINDING THE TREASURE
(2001), SELLING ALL.
2. Fiand, Barbara (2001), REFOCUSING THE VISION.
3. Joan Chittister (2005), THE WAY WE WERE.
4. Michael H. Crosby (2005), CAN RELIGIOUS LIFE BE PROPHETIC?.
5. Sarah McFarland Taylor (2007), GREEN SISTERS: A SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY
7. Brenda Peddigrew (2008), ORIGINAL FIRE:The Hidden Heart of Religious Women (order via www. amazon.com; www.amazon.ca)
6. Diarmuid O'Murchu MSC - see the section Books & Tapes. |
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