Naropa University Oakland
Master of Liberal Arts Program in Creation Spirituality
OCTOBER INTENSIVE SYLLABUS
JULIAN OF NORWICH & MEISTER ECKHART
CSP615 Number of Credit Units: 2
Instructor: Ana Perez-Chisti, Ph.D Instructor's contact telephone number: 510-594-1729
Class Schedule: October Intensive, Oct. 23rd 24th , and 25th. 9:00-12-30
Oct. 26th 9:00-1pm
Course Description:
Our classes will focus on two major Medieval Creation Mystics: Julian of Norwich and Meister Eckhart. We will study how they articulated the mystical journey through the Creation Centered Grid of the Four Paths. Learning their unfolding code of wisdom we will see how these two luminaries befriended Creation, Darkness and Transformation and Compassion. How their wisdom followed the sacred laws of the universe and how they displayed their unique talents will be the major areas of concentration for this intensive.
Using lecture and open dialogue format the course will open insight into the following Creation Centered Themes: The Word of God, Earthiness as a Blessing, Trust and Expansion, Panentheism, Realized Eschatology, Thanksgiving and Praise, Sin and Salvation, Letting Go, Nothingness, Co-creation, Art as Meditation, Discipline, Giving Beauty back to the world, God as Mother, Theology of Resurrection, Faith, Interdependence, Celebration and Recovery of Erotic Justice.
Course Objectives:
1. To become aware of how these two Mystics touch the same spring of inspiration, though unique in their qualities, yet united in the enlivening universal principles that celebrates the blessing of God’s creation and that rise in opposition to the Fall-Redemption paradigm of the Church doctrine in their time period.
2. To understand the development of the Creation-Centered tradition and the Four Paths which constitute its essence as well as the twenty-six themes, which flow from it. These basic themes form a comprehensible structure by which a student may fathom the depths of thought found in the writings of these two mystics.
3. To realize that you are a mystic in the making and to return to the transformative power of interrelated remembrance which arises when we celebrate the unity of our global civilization through purposeful acts of beauty, random acts of kindness, and a shared struggle for justice and compassion.
4. That you leave this intensive with new skills in how in read the mystics and the desire to do so.
Course Requirements:
1. Attendance………………………………………………………20%
2. Readings………………………………………………………...20%
3. Class participation………………………………………………20%
4. Final Paper………………………………………………………40%
Total Requirements…………………………………………….100%
Required Reading:
Skinner, John (Tr) Revelation of Love-Julian of Norwich. New York: Image Books-Doubleday, 1996
Fox, Matthew. Breathrough-Meister Eckhart Creation Spirituality in New Translation. New York: Image Books-Doubleday, 1980 (Reprinted under the name of Passion for Creation).
Recommended Texts:
Cooper, Austin. Julian of Norwich-Reflections on Selected Texts. Mystic, Connecticut: Twenty Third Publications, 1986.
Doyle, Brendan. Meditations with Julian of Norwich. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Bear and Company, 1983.
Jantzen, Grace. Julian of Norwich. London: SPCK, 1994
Colledge, Edmund, O.S.A. and Bernard McGinn (Tr.) Meister Eckhart-The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and Defense. New York: Paulist Press, 1981.
Ancelet-Hustache, Jeanne. Master Eckhart and the Rhineland Mystics. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1957.
Clark, James M. Meister Eckhart: An Introduction to the Study of His Works with an Anthology of His Sermons. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd. 1957.
Class Reading Schedule:
Oct. 23rd Read in Julian, Preface and pages 1-86
Oct. 24th Read in Julian, Pages 87-183.
Oct. 25th Read Eckhart, Via Positiva, Sermons, 1,2,3,5, and 10
Via Negativa, Sermons 11, 12, 15, and 20
Oct. 26th Read Eckhart, Via Creativa, Sermons 21, 23, 27, and 29
Via Transformativa, Sermons 31,32,33,34, and 36
Final paper assignments will be given in the class and are due three weeks after the course is completed.
Email: [email protected]
Description: Dance with the mystics. Dance with the intention of releasing the mystical insights that are hiding inside of you. A beginner’s guide to embodied research, where accessing the texts can be done in a delight-filled approach. No experience necessary. Dress comfortably.
Objectives: To enter the realm of the mystic through our body-souls. We will walk through the doors of the mystical texts and discover keys to unlocking the hidden mysticism in each of us. By working as an individual and as a community, dance becomes a door to the sacred art of mystagogia.
Requirements:
Attend-dance – Attend to the dance
Participation – Full contemplation-in-action
Mystagogia-log – Keeping a journal of the mystery
Written, Visual, and Dance Creations
Outline:
Thursday
· Enter our own body/soul wisdom
· Build a personal mystical dance vocabulary
· Written Creation
Friday
· Engage mystical texts with our body/soul
· Discover pre-existing mystical vocabularies
· Visual Creation
Saturday
· Create personal mystical revelations
· Claim your body/soul vocabulary
· Dance Creation