Short Courses This January at General Seminary — The General Theological Seminary

General Seminary is now accepting registrations for three courses in January 2012 taught by outstanding visiting professors and offering different experiences for General Learners with busy schedules. To discover more about the course offerings and to register, click here.

Open Your Eyes Practicum: Attention, Seeing and the Spiritual Life

Adj. Prof. Chad Thralls

January 11-13. 10:00am-3:00pm.

This three-day Intensive course explores the ways in which the practice of attention is the foundation of the Christian spiritual life. Scripture and tradition encourage Christians to keep their eyes open and to stay awake. In his book Prayers, Michel Quoist states that all of life can become a prayer for those who know how to see. But what does this mean? How can we see into insight? This course will examine the underappreciated themes of attention, vision, and seeing in the history of Christian spirituality and explore their usefulness for spiritual practice today.

Christian Symbolic Identity: Studies with Esther de Waal

Visiting Professor Esther de Waal

January 24-28, 2012. 10:00am-3:30pm.

This course may be taken as a five-day intensive for credit or can be taken in smaller units for audit, continuing education, or general learning.

In a world in which we are bombarded by words and visual images, we are missing their symbolic resonances that can help us to understand ourselves, the Church and God. The neglect of symbolic meaning in words and images, and the resulting loss of symbolic identity, are impoverishing both our spirituality and our ministries. This short course will attempt to reclaim the religious imagination as a tool for interpreting word and image and thereby for deepening our knowledge of ourselves, energizing our life within the Church and the world, and growing in relationship with God.

Each day of this course will address a distinct theme of Christian symbolic identity. Pedagogy will include lectures, reflective talks, visual material, and small group discussions. Students may participate in one of four levels:

For Credit: Attend all days. Audit: Attend four or five days. Continuing Education Unit: Attend any two days. General Learning: Attend only on Saturday, January 28, 2012. Students who are seeking a Continuing Education unit may choose any two of the five days to attend and will be contacted by the seminary regarding their choice of days.