One way of engaging with the questions and concerns that fall under the general heading of ‘the spiritual’ is via an organised programme of study, available to staff and students alike, which while outside of the formal curriculum holds the possibility of gaining some form of recognised award. Such was the ‘Associateship Programme’ which I inherited from my immediate predecessor, the Revd Dr Brian Kelly, who had created it from scratch. Comprising four terms, each of seven weekly sessions, and held over a two year period (utilising the Michaelmas and Lent terms of each year) the Associateship Programme could be accessed in a number of ways. Some chose to attend a single session. Others came and went as the subject, or personal availability directed. And a few, commonly ten or so each year, elected to attend the whole programme, complete an essay at the end of each term and submit them for the Associateship Award.
The syllabus developed and shifted according to available resources. Sessions were led by myself (JTL identified below) and a variety of academic staff drawn from across the institution. This afforded an excellent way to interact with a variety of persons and disciplines. But the greatest joy of the Programme was the creation of an environment in which staff and students could form one learning community together; the resulting discussions were always very rich. Given that this Programme aimed at helping people navigate both philosophical and spiritual territory, the aim was not to suggest what to think. It was rather to provide the resources for participants to find their own way through what could otherwise be quite intimidating terrain.
I ran the Programme from 2003-2010 in one location on a Monday evening from 6-7pm. Were I to run it again, not only would the syllabus need some adaptation, but the course would be much more usefully located on-line, videoing sessions, providing some accompanying notes and with perhaps a face-to-face study day once a year. In case it is helpful for the creation of something parallel, I outline below the structure and content of the sessions that comprised the Programme.
TERM 1: ETHICS
SESSION 1: What is Ethics? (JTL)
Synopsis: Is ethics more than personal preference? How are ethical decisions made? How do different types of ethical reasoning function? A brief look at deontological, consequentialist and virtue approaches to ethical issues. Overall aim: to provide a vocabulary for assessing ethical decisions.
SESSION 2: What constitutes a good life? (JTL)
Synopsis: What do contemporary TV adverts suggest about what makes life good? Is this sustainable? How did Thomas Aquinas deal with the question of the good? A look at how natural law can help in making ethical decisions. There will also be the opportunity to construct a personal agenda for a meaningful life.
SESSION 3: Issues in Medical Ethics (Dr Alison Smith)
Synopsis: An exploration of recent medical and technological advances in health care with a particular focus on ethical issues at the beginning and end of life. There will be an exploration of issues such as: Does all life have equal value? Do health professionals have a duty to preserve and protect life at all costs? What impact might this have on society?
SESSION 4: Business Ethics an Oxymoron? (David Long)
Synopsis: An exploration of some key questions, interlaced with activities and case studies. Can business and ethics be linked? What is the position of ethics in the practical world of business? Isn’t the financial bottom line the moral bottom line? Do business people compromise personal principles? Overall aim: to develop understanding of the complexities of ethics in society and business.
SESSION 5: Ethics and the environment (Dr Stephen Scoffham)
Synopsis: Our relationship with the environment is one of the most pressing ethical issues of our times, raising multiple and complex questions about rights and duties. The importance of making connections and the difficulty of reconciling conflicting demands will be highlighted in this session. You will also be encouraged to reflect on your own values and attitudes and to think about where you stand on a variety of environmental problems.
SESSION 6: What are Human Rights? (Prof Michael Wright)
Synopsis: What does the term ‘Human Rights’ mean in terms of the law? How has the current position evolved both nationally and internationally? What are the implications of this debate particularly in view of current discussions about security and related matters?
SESSION 7: Can there be moral absolutes? (JTL)
Synopsis: Does relativism reign supreme? Is ethical choice simply a way of dressing up personal preference as intellectually respectable? Do you simply need to convince a sufficient number of people to think the same as the view you wish to hold (“A wider public debate on the issue”)? Are some ethical principles always true no matter the place or the time?
TERM 2: KNOWLEDGE
SESSION 1: What is knowledge? (JTL)
Synopsis: Knowledge only arises from interpretation, and all interpretation is dependent on the context in which it is made. This process of interpretation happens within, and helps to shape, an overarching world-view. Given that there are a number of different possible world-views, what is knowledge?
SESSION 2: Postmodern Challenges (JTL)
Synopsis: This session will aim to introduce you to three of the most prominent postmodern thinkers. Thus we will look at what Michel Foucault (1926–1984) says about power and knowledge, what Jaques Derrida (1930-2004) says about ‘deconstruction’ (the destabilization of any constructed meaning), and what Richard Rorty (1931- 2007)) says about pragmatic truth.
SESSION 3: What is “real” within society? (Prof Mike Weed)
Synopsis: This session will step back from the question ‘how do we know?’ to ask ‘what things exist for us to know about?’, essentially ‘what is real?’. The session will distinguish between realist and critical realist views of society and social forces. One example of a key question for this type of debate is how far do racism or sexism exist outside of individual incidences of racist or sexist behaviours?
SESSION 4: Approaches to truth: Science (Dr Kevin Carlton)
Synopsis: There is a popular misconception that it is impossible to be a theist and a scientist at the same time. What are the similarities and differences between scientific and theological claims to truth? What are the limits of each approach?
SESSION 5: Approaches to truth: Literature (Dr Terrance Clifford-Amos)
Synopsis: Beginning with biblical syntax, the Medieval tradition of Roman Catholicism and continuing into the upheavals of the Reformation and the Puritan movement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries how has Christ been conveyed? The enlightenment, 19th century scepticism, redemptive imagery, examples from modern literature and reactions to Christ across a range of writing will be addressed and discussed.
SESSION 6: Approaches to truth: Music (Prof Grenville Hancox)
Synopsis: ‘The universal song, sung by all humans passing from the womb into the world, is a universal reference point and touch stone…We have in us all the potential to respond to the very basis of our being. Music is within us all, and to be touched by any music is to know something of this truth.’ This proposition is outlined through an illustrated lecture exploring devices and techniques of music composition that may allow us to glimpse the truth.
SESSION 7: Can we know God? (JTL)
Synopsis: Is the claim to knowledge of God meaningful or meaningless? If meaningful, how might it be established and defended? Two possible strategies will be examined: first, that of David Tracy who, as a liberal theologian, works within a modern understanding of truth; and secondly that of Radical Orthodoxy which draws upon a postmodern perspective even while calling this into question.
TERM 3: PERSONHOOD
SESSION 1: The Story of Human Evolution (JTL)
Synopsis: In the last 15 years or so great strides have been made in the reconstruction the story of human evolution. The picture of one, simple linear trajectory of development, in which all our predecessors found their place, has been replaced by a more complex understanding. Human evolution is now held to look rather like a branching bush of experiments. For example, about 1.8 million years ago there were at least four different species of hominid existing simultaneously. How did our branch of this bush come to be the only one now in existence? At what point did we cease to be simply mammals and become persons? Were Neanderthals (present in Europe until 27,000 years ago) persons also?
SESSION 2: Leisure and Personhood (Dr Christopher Bull)
Synopsis: This session aims to examine the development of leisure over the last 200 years and assess its role in contemporary society and its influence on people’s lives. What is the relationship between leisure and work and leisure and religion? And what are the possible future prospects for leisure?
SESSION 3: Faith and Citizenship (Prof James Arthur)
Synopsis: To enter on a discussion about character and, even more, about character education is to enter a minefield of conflicting definition and ideology. There are clear lines of division separating the secular and religious ideas of character. The ancient virtues of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle included prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. In addition to recognising these ‘cardinal virtues’ Christianity gave first place to the ‘theological virtues’ of faith, hope and love. Christians are thus obliged to love and cannot easily adopt the secular language of morals without losing what is distinctive about their belief system.
SESSION 4: The Psychology of Personhood (Dr Christopher Pike)
Synopsis: This session will outline and evaluate the contributions of key psychological approaches to the topic (behaviourist, cognitive scientific, sociocultural), while highlighting the problematic nature of ‘personality’ as popularised and defined by psychometric and psychoanalytic traditions. Drawing on case studies, emphasis will be placed on the need to adopt a developmental perspective on personhood that integrates our understanding of cognitive neuroscience with the study of sociocultural processes – particularly those mediated by language.
SESSION 5: Spirituality and Personhood (The Revd David Stroud)
Synopsis: The term Spirituality today conjures up a variety of images, psychic fairs, crystals, fairies and other new age wonderments. For people exploring their place and meaning in life the question of spirituality can be central to the question ‘who am I’? Is spirituality simply a question relating to personal identity in a consumer age or does it go beyond the individual to the wider community perspective and re-connect with the world around us? What do Christians understand by the term Spirituality and how does it influence their sense of personhood.
SESSION 6: Patient as Person (Dr Alison Smith)
Synopsis: This session explores the meaning of the term ‘person’ within a health care context. Becoming and ceasing to be a ‘person’ are then considered as being related to human potential. Consequently, providing ‘person-centred’ care has implications for medical ethics in relation to power and balance in decisions made.
SESSION 7: Personhood and the Doctrine of the Trinity (JTL)
Synopsis: The doctrine of the Trinity is commonly regarded as a piece of abstract speculation unrelated to everyday life even by those who adhere to the Christian Faith. In fact, the doctrine of the Trinity has both contributed to and been informed by developing concepts of personhood. Thus, for example, amidst the harsh political and economic realities of Brazil in the mid 1980s, the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff was able to develop a critique of both capitalism and collectivism on the basis of Trinitarian thought.
TERM 4: FAITH
SESSION 1:Does God exist? (JTL)
Synopsis: Is belief in God’s existence rational? In this session we explore some of the classic arguments that have been put forward to suggest that it is: the cosmological, teleological and ontological arguments. We also examine an approach from religious experience. Do these approaches succeed? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
SESSION 2: What about suffering? (Prof Gareth Jones)
Synopsis: Some say that you can prove the existence of God because the world looks like it has been designed. On the other hand, some say you can disprove the existence of God because the world does not seem to have been designed especially well. What about suffering? Would a God who was simultaneously all-powerful and all-loving permit pain in the world?
SESSION 3: Providence, Miracles and Prayer: Does God Act? (JTL)
Synopsis: It is common for religions to assume that God acts in the world. What does an action of God look like? How might it be recognised? Given the successful description of the world by natural science is God’s action even possible?
SESSION 4: What do we know about Jesus? (Dr Brian Capper)
Synopsis: This session will introduce the main issues surrounding the study of the historical Jesus. These will include the evidence for Jesus in sources outside the New Testament, arguments for the historical value of the oral tradition of first generation Christianity (c. AD 30–70) which was written down in the Gospels of the New Testament, and models currently being advanced in New Testament study for understanding Jesus’ ministry, including social prophet, sage and teacher, eschatological prophet and ‘sign’ prophet.
SESSION 5: An Introduction to Judaism (Dr Maria Diemling)
Synopsis: Based on the well-known classic of Yiddish literature, Tevye the Milkman by Sholom Aleichem, this session will provide an introduction to some of the main issues of contemporary Judaism. Which challenges did modernity pose to Jewish religion and culture? We will assess if Judaism is more than “just” a religion and look at issues such as the tension between tradition and change, Enlightenment, Zionism and Anti-Semitism and how they shaped Jewish self-awareness.
SESSION 6: An Introduction to Buddhism (Prof Bee Scherer)
Synopsis: Buddhism is neither satisfactorily described as a religion nor as a philosophy: rather it is simply a method. Placing emphasis on experience rather than faith, Buddhism teaches means for permanent happiness. This introduction offers a glimpse into the richness and complexities of the different Buddhist paths from both an academic and a practitioner perspective.
SESSION 7: Christianity among the World Faiths (JTL)
Synopsis: This session aims to explore the various ways in which Christian thinkers have tried to understand the relationship between Christianity and other great world faiths. Beginning with the Enlightenment and Gotthold Lessing’s play Nathan the Wise, we move to consider the options of pluralism as espoused by John Hick and the so-called Inclusivism of Wolfhart Pannenberg and Gavin D’Costa. Finally we assess whether Hans Küng’s emphasis on the construction of a shared Global Ethic is the most promising way forward.
No thoughts yet on “The value of an ‘associateship programme’”