CSP 693: MYSTICISM, PROPHECY, AND LIBERATION  

Credits: 1

Instructor: Clare Ronzani  (510-835-4827 ext. 25; email )

 

SPRING 2003 (beginning week of March 31. Please note first class meets on Wednesday April 2, 9:30 a.m.- noon; all others to be held on Mondays 1:30-4:00 p.m.)

 

Course Description: The aim of this course is to explore spirituality as a path rooted in a prophetic mysticism and engaged in a commitment to liberation. We will consider calls to personal/societal transformation, the relationship between contemplation and resistance, and the way of nonviolence.  Our study will be guided by readings from contemporary figures who walk the path of prophetic witness.

 

Course Objectives:

1. To consider the meaning of mysticism, prophecy, and liberation in contemporary context
2. To explore a spirituality which challenges us to participate in both personal and societal liberation processes
3. To reflect on the lives of those who have been/are engaged in both contemplation and resistance, as a way of clarifying and challenging our own understandings of the relationship between the two

 

Course Requirements:

 

1. Attendance                                                                                           20%

(One absence for serious reason allowed; otherwise, student does not receive credit. Please notify instructor if you know ahead of time that you need to miss a class).

2. Informed Class Participation (based on weekly readings)                       40%
3. Written assignment: one reflection paper                                                20%
4. Participation in one outside-of-class event related to justice/liberation or further study of a person whose life exhibits commitment to nonviolence. Both of these to be shared with class during final session  (1-2 page write-up)   20%

 

Readings

Ingram, Catherine, In the Footsteps of Gandhi

            Merton, Thomas, Gandhi on Nonviolence

            Course Reading Packet: Selections from sources which include:

                        Douglass, James, Resistance and Contemplation

                        Fox, Matthew, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life

                        Soelle, Dorothee, The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance

                        Wink, Walter, The Powers That Be

                                                                                                Subject to change

 CSP 693 MYSTICISM, PROPHECY, & LIBERATION

 SPRING 2003

Subject to change

Wednesday, April 2: LIBERATION: SETTING THE CONTEXT

(note change of class time for first session. Also please note that reading for first class is to be completed prior to the session.)

            Reading: Ingram, Catherine, In the Footsteps of Gandhi, Introduction and pages 3-53 (Dalai Lama/Awad)

                        Harris, Maria, “Themes in a Century: Challenges for Jubilee” (Proclaim Jubilee, ch. 1)

            Recommended: Teasdale, “Intimacy with the Divine,” (A Monk in the World)

 

Monday, April 7: MYSTICISM AND PROPHECY

            Reading: Ingram, In the Footsteps of Gandhi, pages 55-97  (Baez/Thich Nhat Hanh)

                        Fox, Matthew: “Prayer as Radical Socially,” (Prayer: A Radical Response to Life)

                        Merton, Thomas, Gandhi on Nonviolence: Principles of Nonviolence & Nonviolence: True and False

                        Soelle, Dorothee, “The Journey” (The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance)

Recommended: Fitzgerald, Constance, “Impasse and Dark Night”

                                    Merton, “What is Contemplation” and “Things in Their Identity” (New Seeds of Contemplation)

 

Monday, April 14:  RESISTANCE AND CONTEMPLATION

            Reading: Ingram, In the Footsteps of Gandhi, pages 99-167 (Chavez/Ariyaratne/Macy)

Clark, Jeanne, “The Tridents Within”

Douglass, James, Resistance and Contemplation (selections)

Merton, Gandhi on Nonviolence: The Spiritual Dimensions of Nonviolence

 

Reflection Paper due

 

Monday, April 21: LIBERATING NONVIOLENCE

            Reading: Ingram, In the Footsteps of Gandhi, pages 169-222 (Ram Dass/Nash)

                        Merton, Gandhi on Nonviolence: The Political Scope of Nonviolence

                        Wink, Walter, “Practical Nonviolence” (The Powers that Be) “Beyond Pacifism and Unjust War”

            Recommended: Wink, “But What If…” (The Powers that Be)

 

Monday, April 28:  LIVING WITNESSES: PROPHETIC MYSTICISM IN ACTION

            Reading: Ingram, In the Footsteps of Gandhi, pages 226-284 (Snyder/Steindl-Rast/Tutu)

                        Merton, Gandhi on Nonviolence: The Purity of Nonviolence

            Sharing of outside-of-class event or individual study of “living witness”