Weekend Program for Working Adults
The Sophia Center's Weekend program enables working adults to attain a master's degree in two years while delving deeply into the converging wisdom traditions that are the source of a new creation story.
It covers the same themes as the nine-month residential program and is structured around four stimulating weekends per semester, as well as the Summer Institute.
The weekend program attracts people from throughout the country who pursue expanding knowledge and an advanced degree while meeting their on-going vocational and personal commitments.
The unique weekend format allow students to reflect upon and apply the curriculum to the context of their working lives.
Fall 2008: Fourfold Wisdom
Sept. 19-21/08. Radical Awakening: The Challenge of Our Times (Gail Worcelo) At this pivotal moment in our history as a human species, we are beginning to understand ourselves as the “farthest reaches of the Big Bang.” We will explore this thrilling and awesome realization together and consider what we need to let go of and what we need to take on in order to consciously participate wholeheartedly in the evolutionary process.
Oct.17-19/08. What Is the Church We Want? (Rosemary Radford Ruether) To answer this question we will listen carefully to what authority has to say, yet are not afraid to express ourselves as equal members.
Nov. 14-16/08. Radical Amazement: A Spirituality of Awe and Wonder (Judy Cannato) The discoveries of modern science are certainly amazing, changing not only the way we tell the story of creation but the way we tell the story of the Mystery we call God. The spirituality that emerges as we respond to these new realities is one characterized by awe, wonder, and unitive consciousness characteristic of the mystics.
Dec. 5-7/08. Deep the Love That Calls Us On (Carolyn McDade) Slowly we are opening to what earlier people intuited—we are an intimate part of the universe—not just beings on the Earth, but dimensions of the Earth—not simply in a vast universe, but of the vast universe. We come together to sing and reflect, sharing sound and silence and seeking to touch what matters. What it would be like if we dared to love this life—the fragile and the vulnerable, the endangered—daring to be humble before the magnitude of our beginnings, daring to lead our species into a stubborn and pliant wonder.
Spring 09: Spirituality of Earth, Art & Spirit
Jan. 23-25/09. Masters of the Cosmos and the Soul
—Thomas Berry and Thomas Merton in Dialogue (Kathleen Deignan) As prophets and culture critics both masters announced the perils and crises of our moment; as visionaries and poets both saw the new frontiers of human spiritual evolution, languaged them into clarity, and charted revelatory maps to guide us forward, from our wasteland worlds into regions of greater vitality, depth and solidarity with all life; as midwives of the new creation, both labored in the Great Work of our time: to birth the new human person for the new age.
Feb. 20-22/09. The New Cosmology, Conscious-ness, and the Unexamined Narrative of Race (Belvie Rooks/Carl Anthony) A new cosmology, emerging during the last two decades in a dialogue between western scientists, theologians and ecologists, is the story of the birth, development, and destiny of the universe based on findings of 21st century science. Rooks and Anthony in conversation, propose a transformative social justice agenda for this new cosmology in the 21st century.
Mar. 27-29/09. Animals, Jazz, and Poetry: Intro-duction to a Process Philosophy of Ecology (Jay McDaniel) Influenced by the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, “process philosophy” is now an international movement alive in many different parts of the world, including China. This workshop will introduce process philosophy, drawing connections between a “process” understanding of the universe and animals, jazz, and poetry.
Apr. 17-19/09. At the Confluence of Cosmology, Ecology and Justice: Thomas Berry, Dr. King, and the Path into the Future (Drew Dellinger) This course will explore cosmology, ecology and justice through the prophetic visions of Thomas Berry and Martin Luther King Jr. In our current historical moment, which combines potential catastrophe with immense possibility, the ecological vision of Berry and the social justice vision of King provide crucial insight and inspiration for the cultural transformations needed in the present.