==>Unit 2 -- Christian Spirituality

Unit 3--Psychology and the Unconscious

Unit 4 -- Evolutionary Psychology and Ethics

Class	5a Slides
Date	10/4
Title	Primer on Christianity
Readings	Whiz-Bang Tour of Hebrew Scriptures, Whiz-Bang Tour of Christian New Testament (on web) (Please note the links in these to Biblical passages online and follow some of these!) Begin reading in "The Sayings of the Fathers" in The Desert Fathers, pp. 67-137. These are basically a collection of short stories and sayings. It is recommended that you browse through them meditatively, lingering on any that catch your attention and turning them over in your mind.
Prior thought questions

Class	5b Slides
Date	10/6
Title	Early Christian Spiritual Practice
Readings	The Desert Fathers: (Introduction) Life of St. Paul the First Hermit History of the Monks of Egypt More meditations on "The Sayings of the Fathers", pp. 67-137. (See above.)
Prior thought questions	The themes of solitude and silence are quite central to the spirituality of the desert. (As they are to many other spiritual traditions.) While you are not in a position to spend long amounts of time in the solitude of the Egyptian desert, you can experiment with the experience of silence closer to home. Take some time -- perhaps 20-30 minutes each day, and do the following: Find a place where you are not likely to be disturbed for this time. The quieter and more lonely the better. Find a comfortable way to sit. (Or stand or kneel if you prefer. I do not recommend lying down though, as you may fall asleep!) Try to be completely silent, inwardly as well as outwardly. The point is not so much the reduction of overall decibel level as not doing or thinking anything. At the end of the time, reflect back on what went on during this time. Write down for yourself what sorts of things went through your mind, how successful you were at keeping your mind silent, what did and did not work in helping to still your mind.

Class	6a Slides
Date	10/11
Title	Theophan -- Theoretical Psychology
Readings	The Spiritual Life Chapters 1-13
Prior thought questions	Try to map out the "parts" of the self that make up Theophan's model. What does this model have in common with those of Plato or Aristotle? What is here that is foreign to the classical Greek philosophers? Where do you think various parts of this model come from? Are they the obvious consequences of Biblical Christianity? If you are familiar with other Christian traditions that have different models of the person, try to map them out as well and identify where they differ from Theophan's.

Class	6b Slides
Date	10/13
Title	Theophan -- Intended and Fallen states of Humanity
Readings	The Spiritual Life, Chapters 16-22
Prior thought questions	What is Theophan's diagnosis of what is wrong with human beings? How does this story connect with the Christian scriptures? Is it the only possible interpretation of them? How does this diagnosis relate to the theoretical psychology you outlined for the last class? What is Theophan's prescription for the remedy of the problems with the human condition? How is this to be accomplished? What would be Theophan's assessment of "self-improvement" methods that directly treat behavior or the emotions? What elements here are different from that of the previous writers we've read? Where is the source of the differences? The theoretical psychology? The ethics? The therapeutic methods? The theology?

Class	7a Slides
Date	10/18
Title	Theophan -- Making Progress in Virtue
Readings	The Spiritual Life, Chapters 23-38
Prior thought questions	Make a list of the various techniques for spiritual improvement Theophan suggests here. Pick one that interests you and try it. (If you find them all abhorrent, of course, you need not try any of them!) Adapt it as you need to for your own religious views -- i.e., you are not asked to pray to Jesus if you are not a Christian. To what extent are these techniques separable from Theophan's theoretical psychology? From his theology?

Class	7b Slides
Date	10/20
Title	Theophan -- Spiritual Warfare
Readings	The Spiritual Life, Chapters 39-62, esp. 54-62
Prior thought questions	For chapters 39-62, I recommend that you read somewhat in the way you read in the Desert Fathers -- i.e., meditative browsing and stopping for slower reading of sections that seem edifying to you. Outline the stages of the passions in Ch. 54ff. What is characteristic of each stage? How should one combat the passions at each stage? Pick some passion that you have identified as one from which you suffer in earlier exercises and try to discern whether Theophan's analysis of the pathology of the passions rings true to your experience of this particular passion. At what stage is its development?

Class	8a Slides
Date	10/25
Title	Theophan -- Various Topics
Readings	The Spiritual Life, Chapters 63-end
Prior thought questions	Continue meditative browsing. Note any techniques that seem of interest. Write out a synopsis of how one of them works that could be applied by someone else, and then try to practice it (adapting it as needed to your own religious views.)