Online Courses for Fall 2008
September 15 – October 31, 2008

DLF6001 Holy Whodunits: Religion as Portrayed in Contemporary Murder Mysteries

Debra Farrington

Popular culture has gotten religion in recent years. Novels, movies, and pop music are filled with spiritual and religious images and understandings. So perhaps it should be no surprise that the number of murder mysteries featuring religious settings, characters, and conflicts has grown enormously in the last couple of decades. Using mysteries by writers P.D. James, Laurie King and Faye Kellerman, we’ll look at the ways contemporary religious life, sensibilities, and conflicts can be explored in literature. This will be a course for those who want to explore how religion and faith are portrayed in contemporary culture, as well as those who just want to sit back and ponder the Mysterious in some great mysteries.

DLF6002 The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from Women of the Wilderness

Mary Earle

Who were the desert mothers? What do their lives, their sayings, and their practices of prayer have to teach us in our modern day? How might we learn from their steadfast attention to the Great Commandment to love God and our neighbors as our selves? Using material from her text of the same title, Mary C. Earle will introduce students to the desert mothers. We will learn about our foremothers in the Christian faith and discover some practical ways of living out that Great Commandment in the modern world.

DLT6001 Consumerism against Christianity

Robert Elzy Cogswell

Robert Elzy Cogswell serves as tour-guide for a view of relationships among consumerism, clergy, and laity. The course will not center on the damage consumerism does to you. You already understand that. The emphasized theme will be to find new ways you can help yourself, your parish, or your parishioners to be Christian in a consumer-driven economy. Laity will learn ways to overcome the consumer mentality by making conscious choices about lifestyle.

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Online Courses for Spring 2009
February 16 – April 3, 2009

DLF6003 Finding Meaning in Transition

Debra Farrington

Most of us think of transitional times with a bit of dread. Transitions, particularly the ones we haven’t chosen, bear an amazing similarity to the journey the Israelites took through the desert after being freed from slavery. The process of learning to leave slavery behind and becoming — fully — the people of God is a difficult one, but it is also rife with possibilities for creativity. Transitions are more than endurance contests — though they are often that. They are times when God invites us most deeply into a co-creative relationship if we are willing to listen for and accept the invitation. In this course we’ll look at the ways that God invited the Israelites into deeper relationship, and how the stories of the Exodus can serve as a model for our own transitions.

DLF6004 “We are One with You’: Spiritual Insights from Thomas Merton”

Mary C. Earle

A Roman Catholic Trappist monk, Thomas Merton was a prolific writer whose work continues to invite millions of readers the world over into contemplative living. In this course, we will learn about Merton’s life, and read some of his writings on the contemplative life, on compassion, and on social justice. We will reflect on the ways in which contemplative living leads to practicing non-violence and working for peace. And we will attempt to incorporate Merton’s lessons with regard to silence, awareness, and attention into our daily lives.”

DLB6001 Feeling Bad in a Feel Good World: Using the Penitential Psalms as Prayer

Steven Bishop

This course will explore ways in which praying the Penitential Psalms can enrich our spiritual life. For centuries the Penitential Psalms (Pss. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) have been a regular aspect of the devotional life. Once they regularly appeared in devotional guides but have now slipped out of use. This is a significant loss for Christians who long for a language to express their grief over sin, both individual and global, and their joy for God’s grace.