Spiritual Innovators

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Spiritual Innovators - 75 Extraordinary People Who Changed the World in the Past Century

Click to see the course outline and the selected lives of our study.

In each generation there are those the world honours for their spirituality. These persons differ in every conceivable way from each other. They are from every corner of the world and every aspect of life. Their belief is invariably different - indeed many would deny religious belief. Their political perspectives are invariably different. Their histories, their lives, their words - all different. None of them found Truth-For-All yet all were true to their calling, responding in service to others. All shone light into the world where they were. This is today's paradox. How do we love spirituality but not love religion? How do these excellent lives help us better understand the inclusive not exclusive nature of the Spirit of God?

The tone of this study is rather well set by Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet by his famous perspective on first seeing an elephant. Click HERE to see it.

REVIEW OF "Spiritual Innovators" by Wayne Holst as published in the Western Catholic Reporter

Course Outline and Notes Links

Facilitators: Wayne Holst and Jock McTavish

	Internet Discussion Group at Yahoo. You may visit and / or join this convenient group. However it is rather unfriendly to figure out how to use it and get to it. So please click left for our help page on the details.
	Spirituality. What does it mean? How is it encountered? How may we measure it? Why do we value it? Where is it found? Who possesses it? How do we share it? Some gatherings to consider.
	75 Lives. A matrix analysis of what characterized these Spiritual Innovators. Threads in the tapestry. The names in orange that the course will focus on will link to study pages if underlined.
	Internet Links and Resources. This page will collect the places we all find and share respecting the themes of this study. Each has a little introduction and will directly call up the resource site so you don't have to type.
	Golden Rule. This page was made using the poster from Scarboro Missions that Nancy has brought to class. It is such an excellent reminder that so many religious traditions have the same moral perspective.

Course Outline The course explores the meanings and consequences of human spirituality as found in the lives of the 75 Spiritual Innovators. A manageble 24 voices are selected for special attention around the 4 themes below.

Click on the left side digit buttons below to jump to the session pages. Click on the underlined names to visit their respective reference sheets. Internet links from the book are located there for your easy access. These will activate as we proceed so keep checking and remember to click the reload/refresh.

Sep 23. Course Overview. How to use / read the book. Discussion: starting point - What do we bring to each other on and understanding of spirituality to begin?

Sep 30. Theme 1 - Global Village - East / West Interchange & Ecumenical Cooperation.

Oct 7. Voices 1 - Global Village : Chogyam Trungpa, Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, Hans Kung, Joseph Campbell, Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Oct 14. Thanksgiving Break.

Oct 21. Theme 2 - Still Voices - Silence - Light - Illumination - Conversion

Oct 28. Voices 2 - Still Voices : Billy Graham, Carl Gustav Jung, Evelyn Underhill, Martin Buber, Black Elk, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Nov 4. Theme 3 - Witness - Dissidence:
Gustavo Gutierrez, Martin Luther King Jr., Oscar Romero

Nov 11. Theme 3 - Witness - Service:
Mother Teresa, Robert Holbrook Smith, Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Nov 18. Theme 4 - Reform - Teaching & Writing: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Abraham Maslow, Robert Funk

Nov 25. Theme 4 - Reform- Leadership: Mahatma Ghandi, Pope John XXIII, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

YET

Dec 2. Course Wrapup. From spirituality to religious committment. As we have looked at the lives of these 75 Spiritual Innovators, and discussed together what change they made to our times, we has changed in our present understanding of spirituality?

YET

Group Leader. Wayne Holst

I spent most of my life thinking like a church professional, rather than as a regular congregational member. My training as a pastor always had me asking myself 'how can I apply this discovery, insight, new information to a regular church setting?'

Often, clergy have been hesitant to share the discoveries they have made through a 'critical' approach to the Bible with their parishoners because they wonder how laypeople might accept it. I have found that many thinking laity are professionals in their own fields of endeavour and understand a critical approach very readily. What they seek are ways of relating faith to daily living.

I am grateful for the journey I have been taking through ordained ministry to teaching at the university and serving as a fellow layperson at St.David's United Church. Here we find that questioning and honest expression of our faith and doubt is readily accepted and supported.

Group Leader. Jock McTavish

I am a student and a poet, a democrat and a techocrat, an eclectic eccentric. I grew up in a loving Baptist community, so in my heart I'm still a Bible loving evangelical. As I grew in learning I found a new home in the United Church whose tolerance embraces the broadest range of Christian understanding. I most enjoy the illumination of our ancient traditions by modern scholarship. For they show in clear novel ways that the perspectives of the Special Ones were seldom the understandings of those that followed. They show all knowledge to be in relationship .

There seems a lack of understanding in our secular world for religious practices. The reasons why I still gladly - even necessarily - attend church are difficult to voice to those unfamiliar with church, or those injured by church. Elliott got it right. We find our way back to the place we started from. But with new understanding.

So I expect this to be a very fascinating study because it will explore these very gaps - and not particularly with theological perspectives - but by examining motive and illumination from these 75 Avatars.

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October 27, 2002