Psychology of Spiritual Life

Catalog description

Taught by JSTB. SECTION 01 PSYCHOLOGY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE: UNDERSTANDING RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE This one credit course, first in the sequence of modules on the Psychology of Spiritual Life, focuses on religious and spiritual aspects of human subjectivity, theoretical aspects of the problem of religious experience, and the methods and practices leading to such experience. This deeply intimate dimension of practical theology will be explored through the study of traditional texts, and through student's self-reflection on their own experience. The course examines first-person authority both in contexts of confidentiality, and with regard to the social significance and health-related importance of subjectively lived religious experience. Class meets Wednesdays: 9/6, 9/13, 9/20, & 9/27/2017; from 6:10pm to 9:00pm. SECTION 02 PSYCHOLOGY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE: INCARNATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT In this one-credit course, second in the sequence of modules on the Psychology of Spiritual Life, students will review the "state and stage" psychologies of human development in world religions. A special attention will be paid to the concepts of incarnation (Christianity) and the Perfect Man (in Islam) as prerequisites to ideas related to human psychospiritual development, and to the modes of embodiment in the traditions such as Kundalini Tantra. The course will show how cultural formations of the self, the modes of spiritual introspection, and the models of human development come together to form a wholistic soteriology. As a part of this study, students will be guided through the contemplative practices and spiritual tools for psychological and physical health. Class meets Wednesdays: 10/4, 10/11, 10/18, & 11/1/2017; from 6:10pm to 9:00pm. SECTION 03 PSYCHOLOGY OF SPIRITUAL LIFE: CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGIES This one-credit course, third in the sequence of modules on the Psychology of Spiritual Life, will include empirical research and theory on religious and spiritual behavior and transformation from contemporary psychology. The historical dimension in this class will establish connections between psychologies of spirituality, and the religious psychologies at their source. A spiritual formation project will help students experience a hands-on activity to examine their own spiritual formation and development. The topics include an overview of scientific psychological approach to spirituality and religiosity, advances in psychology of meditation and prayer, and Jung's, Assagioli's, and transpersonal psychological approaches. Class meets Wednesdays: 11/8, 11/15, 11/29, & 12/6/2017; from 6:10pm to 9:00pm.