Frequently Asked Questions

What is Creation Spirituality?
What are The Principles of Creation Spirituality?
Who Comes to UCS/NUO?
What Can I Do with The Degree?
What are UCS/Naropa Oakland Graduates doing?
How do people finance study?
What about Accreditation?
Do you have student housing?
Where Can I get More Information?

 

What is Creation Spirituality?

Creation Spirituality (CS) honors all of creation as an original blessing. Creation Spirituality integrates the wisdom of Western spirituality and global indigenous cultures with the emerging post-modern scientific understanding of the universe and the awakening artistic passion for creativity which reveals the inter-relatedness of all beings. The Creation Spirituality movement seeks to integrate the wisdom of western spirituality and global indigenous cultures with the emerging scientific understanding of the universe and the passionate creativity of art.

Ten principles of Creation Spirituality

1.      The universe is basically a blessing, that is, something we experience as good.

2.      We can and do relate to the universe as a whole since we are a microcosm of that macrocosm and that this relationship "intoxicates" us. (Aquinas)

3.      Everyone is a mystic (i.e., born full of wonder and capable of recovering it at any age; of not taking the awe and wonder of existence for granted.)

4.      Everyone is a prophet, i.e., a "mystic in action" (Hocking) who is called to "interfere" (Heschel) with what interrupts authentic life.

5.      That humans have to dig and work at finding their deep self, their true self, their spirit self; thus the role of spiritual praxis and meditation and community confrontation which can itself be a yoga. If we do not undergo such praxis we live superficially out of fear or greed or addiction or someone else's expectations of us. That salvation is best understood as "preserving the good." (Aquinas).

6.      That the journey that marks that digging can be named as a four-fold journey:
Via Positiva: delight, awe, wonder, revelry
Via Negativa: darkness, silence, suffering, letting go
Via Creativa: birthing, creativity
Via Transformativa: compassion, justice healing, celebration

7.      Everyone is an artist in some way and art as meditation is a primary form of prayer for releasing our images and empowering the community and each of us. Art finds its fulfillment in ritual, the community's art.

8.      We are all sons and daughters of God; therefore, we have divine blood our vein, the divine breath in our lungs; and the basic work of God is: Compassion.

9.      Divinity is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much Godhead (mystery) as God (history) as much beyond all beings as in all beings.

10.  That we experience that the Divine is in all things and all things are in the Divine (Panentheism) and that this mystical intuition supplants theism (and its child, atheism) as an appropriate way to name our relation to the Divine and experience the Sacred.

Who comes to UCS/Naropa Oakland?

Students come from all over the world, including all parts of the United States
and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New
Zealand. They represent a diverse ethnic, spiritual, and professional mix.
Students range in age from 20’s to 70’s, which tends to create a wonderful
learning environment.

What can I do with the degree?

Matthew Fox often says that this degree makes you a better person whatever that may mean for you; a better parent, a better artist, a better businessperson, a better teacher, a better friend. Graduates have put their training to use as health care workers, therapists, environmental and ecological activists, business professionals, professional folk singers, hospital ministers and others who plan to reinvent the work they did before their study.

What are UCS/Naropa Oakland Graduates doing?

Our graduates include a politician elected to the Canadian Parliament, an assistant District Attorney of Houston, creators of spiritual centers, and founders of a publishing house.

How do people finance study?

Financial Aid in the form of Loans and Grants is available for students in the Masters Program.

Some students study part time in either the weekday or weekend program and work part-time or full-time. Others take federal or personal loans, or use savings to study full-time.

What about Accreditation?

Naropa University Oakland's Master of Liberal Arts program is fully accredited by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCA). Naropa's Main campus in Boulder, Colorado has been accredited since 1986, and the Oakland Campus is covered by that accreditation. NCA is the appropriate "regional accrediting agency" for all similar public and private institutions of higher education.

Doctor of Ministry programs are usually not accredited; The University of Creation Spirituality's is no different. We are involved in the state licensing process, but licensing is distinct from accreditation.

Do you have student housing?

We assist students in their search for housing locally, and have recently rented a house for some of our incoming
students.

Where Can I find Books and more information?