1 Course Description: Spirituality and Conflict ESC 5313 Credits: 3 Session: Winter 2012 Professor: Heather Eaton, Ph.D. Full Professor / Professeure titulaire Saint Paul University 613 236 1393 x 2276 Office 358 heaton@ustpaul.ca This course studies the meaning, structure and function of spirituality. Spirituality is seen a profound and ever present dimension of human existence that plays a role in peace, conflict and ethics at personal and social levels. The first part of the course will examine spirituality in relationship to religion, psychology, culture, wellbeing and what it means to say that spirituality is the art of living. The second part will study the relationship between spirituality and social change. Spirituality is connected to energy, convictions, and a vision of a better society. It can be seen in beliefs, commitments, music, poetry, rituals and radical actions. We will examine how spirituality often plays a role in the lives of those who have made a significant contribution to peace and social justice. The last part of the course will consider spirituality in the Arab Spring / Occupy, global gender justice, and ecological / earth- centered movements. Objectives: This is an indepth examination of spirituality, its meanings, and what role it plays in human living. We will examine contemporary definitions of spirituality with the goal to develop a comprehensive understanding that includes interiority and depth as well as a concern for social well being, and may extend to the well being of all life. We will study significant spiritual leaders of the 20 th century, and how they connected their spirituality to various social concerns. We will study the link between nonviolence and spirituality. Workload and Evaluations: Readings and Assignments: 60% Final takehome exam 30 % Participation and self evaluation 10% Course materials: Syllabus and Web resources Talk to me! Please speak with me if you are concerned about any aspect of the course, if you get lost in the course content, if you get ill, or if you want more resources, other topics, to make suggestions or get better marks. Make an appointment with me, or chat with me before or after class. Please use email very sparingly.
2 Spirituality and Conflict ECS 5313, Winter 2012 Class One: January 10 th Introduction Class mates, course materials, topics, and expectations What is spirituality? Class Two: January 17 th Probing Spirituality David Ray Griffin, Introduction: Postmodern Spirituality and Society, p. 1 31 From Spirituality and Society, ed. David Ray Griffin ( SUNY, 1988) AND Ursula King, Spirituality in A Postmodern age Ursula King, Spirituality and Society in the New Millennium, (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001), p. 118. For the brave adventurer Ken Wilber What Is Integral Spirituality? (118 pgs) files.meetup.com/91062/integral%20spirituality.pdf Spirituality, Ethics, and Leadership spirituality.ucla.edu/docs/newsletters/4/fluker_final.pdf What do you consider to be three essential aspects or features of an authentic spirituality? Class Three: January 24 th Anthropology and Spirituality Daniel Helmeniak : Excerpts from his books. John Dixon, "Form and Spirituality: The Role of Art in the Inner Life http://www.crucifixion.com/visual/theology/johndixon/dixonfs1.htm John Dixon, Theology and Form: Reflections on the Spaces of the Imagination http://www.svare.com/johndixon/dixontf7.htm What does it mean to say that spirituality is anchored in anthropology, meaning that it is understood as a dimension of human existence? Class Four: January 31 st Global Spirituality Daniel Helminak, Spirituality for Our Global Community (2008) and Ursula King, The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life (2008), Excerpts.
3 Describe four features of the global quest for a spirituality for a global community. Class Five: February 7 th Spirituality and Ethics Dalai Lama, Abraham Joshua Heschel Dalai Lama: video s http://www.dalailama.com/webcasts Penguin Lecture 2011 "The Art of Happiness" (43 minutes) http://www.dalailama.com/webcasts/post/207thenatureand- practiceofcompassion / (one hour 4 minutes) Training the Mind: http://www.dalailama.com/teachings/trainingthe- mind Abraham Joshua Heschel You Tube Eternal Light Interview, and Heschel Remembered Both the Dalai Lama and Heschel root their understanding of spirituality within the individual, and their emotions, thoughts, discipline, and way of life. Yet both consider spirituality to be significant for social change. Describe how this is so. Class Six: February 14 th Spirituality and Social movements Martin Luther King JR., Mahatma Gandhi Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1469668/martin_luther_king_i_have_a_dream/ Or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smeqnnklfys The Martin Luther King Institute: http://mlkkpp01.stanford.edu/index.php Search for his speeches and talks They can also be found, with some difficulty, at Speeches: www.infoplease.com/spot/mlkspeeches.html Principles of Non Violence: www.cpt.org/files/pw%20%20principles%20%20king.pdf Mahatma Gandhi www.johndear.org/pdfs/mohandas_gandhi.pdf Mahatma Gandhi : God is Life, Truth, Light, Love and The supreme Good Pilgrim of Peace Documentary Part1 / Both on You Tube Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html
4 Pick either King or Gandhi. Discern what you see to be their spirituality, or spiritual principles. Write what you understand as their definition of spirituality and how this influences their choices and political involvement. Consider that both were killed for their spiritual power and social actions. Class Seven: February 28 th Spirituality and NonViolence Institute on the Common Good: http://www.icgregis.org/ John Paul Lederach: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+paul+lederach& oq=john+paul+lederach&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=19477l1 9477l0l20411l1l1l0l0l0l0l167l167l0.1l1l0 Describe four connections between spirituality and nonviolence using the work of John Paul Lederach. Class Eight: March 6 th Feminism ~ activism ~ spiritual practice International Women's Partnership for Peace and Justice http://womenforpeaceandjustice.org/ Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders http://ddmba.org/pages/globalprograms/peacebuilding/global- peaceinitiative.php Spiritual Women Win Nobel Peace Prize Sat, 10/08/2011 https://www.tanenbaum.org/blog/10/11/spiritualwomenwinnobel- peaceprizenewsroundup Teachings from Pema Chodron www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/ Does a feminist/women s perspective contribute anything different to notions of spirituality, transformation and social change? Give three reasons why. Class Nine: March 13 th Spirituality and Open Topic TBD
5 Class Ten: March 20 st Spirituality, activism and protest Arab Spring! Occupy! John Dear, S.J. on Spiritual Activism / YouTube 9.5minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjmk2ber3y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd26cbguzhw Gene Sharp. From Dictatorship to Democracy: A conceptual framework for liberation Fourth Edition Boston: The Albert Einstein Institution, 2010 http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/fdtd.pdf Guest: Lauren Levesque: spirituality and protest music. What do you see to be the spiritual dimension of either the Arab Spring or the Occupy movements? Class Eleven: March 27 th Spirituality, Health, Depth, Interiority Reading: choices to be discussed in class. Guests: Debbie Grisdale. Former Executive Director of Physicians for Global Survival. Currently developing spirituality with Nursing Associations Wes Maulstaid: Anglican priest, spiritual care at the hospice. What does interiority have to do with spirituality? Class Twelve: April 3 rd Planetary / Cosmic Spirituality Ursula King, One Planet, One Spirit:: Searching for an Ecologically Balanced Spirituality, Ecotheology: The Journal of Religion, Nature and the Environment Vol. 10. 1, April 2005. Film: in class Journey of the Universe: Cosmic, Earth and Human Transformation What does it mean to consider a spirituality of the Earth?
6 Spirituality and Conflict ECS 5313, Winter 2012 Learning Objectives: - to gain an appreciation for the dimension of life named as spiritual to develop a rich and nuanced understanding and horizon of spirituality (its relationship to personal life, religion and culture and transformation) to develop tools to distinguish superficial from profound elements to appreciate the core elements of living spirituality (quest for truth, integrity, interiority, holiness, wholeness, the sacred, justice, community) to study the spiritualties of individuals, and how they understand, describe and live by their spiritual commitments. to appreciate the radical plurality of our time to understand what it means to say that spirituality is the art of living to see the multiple connections between spirituality, nonviolence and social movements to recognize that the study of spirituality is new to academic culture Internet readings, assigned material, and class discussions are the priority of the course. The lecture and discussion will not make sense without the readings. Expect to read for six to eight hours a week. Work is oriented towards reflection, critical thinking and integration. Note: All links are working as of January 1 st 2012. Resources are videos, academic papers, or chapters in books. Lectures are not a repetition of the assigned material, but in addition to. This is an adult learning model. Evaluation of the course: five requirements: 1) Seven one page papers: one page, double spaced, readable font, which is a response to a question about the readings Must be handed during class. After the discussion is not accepted. 7 papers are required. 5% each 35%
7 2) Research Topic: Five page paper or equivalent 15% There is much variation for this assignment. Could be on a particular person covered in class, or someone else. Could be on a topic from class, with greater depth, or something else. Could be on spirituality and health, work, leadership, religion, justice, peace, politics, leisure, beauty or many other possible topics. Could be an academic paper, an annotated bibliography, or reflection on a depth experience. 3) Five Journal Entries : 10% Spirituality is deeply personal, is a challenging subject that engages many dimensions of a person s life, beliefs, thoughts, emotions, convictions, commitments and desires. Keep a journal of your personal reactions and reflections. Five entries need to be handed in that track some aspect of your journey with this subject matter. 4) Final synthesis take home or oral exam: Given out March 27 th: Due Wednesday April 18 th 30 % 5) Participation 10 % 1) The one pagers: read all material first. Be specific rather than general in your answer. Think and assess diverse aspects of the question. Respond from the readings rather than whether you agree or disagree, unless you are sure it adds to the paper. There is no correct answer, as there are many ways to answer the questions. The answer is not a summary of the topic. The papers need to be well structured, clear, precise and well written. Plan the paper to avoid rambling. Avoid words and phrases such as: in my opinion, in the readings the author said, it could be said that, that the topic is too large to discuss adequately... etc. Please check spelling and grammar. Each assignment must be typed, doublespaced and in a readable font. Cover sheets are not required use recycled paper save trees! 2) Research Topic: To be determined individually 3) Journal Entries: photo copy the relevant entries 4) Exam: Takehome: Worth 30 %. Due Tuesday April 17 th in office 358 by 4:00 p.m. 5) Participation: At the end of the course each student is asked to assess her or his learning in the course, out of 10. This relates to the following: class attendance, doing the readings each week, present to the discussions, your engagement with the course, and what you have learned. Did you work? Did you wrestle with the material? It does not mean how much someone talks in class, how intelligent or how often. It does not mean doing well on the assignments. It means engagement and learning. A very brief paragraph helps me to evaluate this mark. I may change the mark.
8 Criteria for Grading A An A paper is where the work is presented coherently, clearly and critically. The written work is systematic, relevant and well articulated addressing itself adequately to the issues at stake, and explicitly answers the question. Spelling and grammar are correct. B Will be given for work that is of good quality that adequately addresses itself to the issues and is relatively well articulated. Spelling and grammar mistakes will move an A paper to a B. C Will be given for work that meets the minimal requirements of the assignment. D Poorly presented work, barely relevant, and not coherent or well articulated. F Irrelevant, disorganized, incoherent work, indicates lack of understanding of the basic material and does not meet the requirements of the course at all. Expectations about marks: If you want good marks, I will help you get them. I will meet with you and coach you on how to get better grades. Learning to read carefully, think critically, and write well means acquiring the skills to do all three. If you do poorly on an assignment, you can rewrite by the next Monday. If you do all one page assignments, I will take the best seven marks. Talk to me! If you are sick, overwhelmed, or life happens, please talk to me. Late/missed assignments and extensions. Assignments need to be handed in during class. Late or missed assignments will be penalized. Extensions will be granted under special circumstances. Policy of plagiarism: Students are reminded that plagiarism (i.e. the use of other people's ideas, words or work, or anything taken from the internet without properly acknowledgment is a serious offence. Students should be aware of the strong sanctions against plagiarism. If proven, charges of plagiarism usually result in an F. See the university policy. Policy on attendance: Saint Paul University has an attendance policy. Class attendance is mandatory except for emergencies. See the university policy. Bring your children if you cannot otherwise come. Office hours: By appointment. Please do not hesitate to contact me if needed. Tel: 236 1393, ext: 2276. Please feel free to discuss any aspect of the course with me. Email Access: Occasionally, class material and announcements will be distributed electronically. Please use the group list to suggest ideas, videos, readings, etc. If you do not want to be on the list, do not put your name on. It is optional.