THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICASchool of Theology and Religious Studies

TRS 750B: CLASSICS IN CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY, PART TWO(From the 13th to the 20th Century)

Spring Semester, 20093 credits414 Caldwell HallMondays, 12:10 – 2:40 p.m.

Instructor Contact Information:Prof. James A. WisemanOffice: 125-2 Caldwell HallPhone: 319-6893Email: wiseman@cua.eduOffice hours: Mon., 2:45 – 4:00 p.m., and Thurs., 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Course Description: Similar in format to Classics, part one, this course focuses on classic texts in Western Christian spirituality from the 14th to the 20th centuries. Included will be works by such authors as Eckhart, Ruusbroec, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Thomas Merton.

Instructional Methods: The course will be conducted in a colloquium format. Short reflection papers on each of the required readings (except on Ignatius of Loyola) will be due by email at least 24 hours before each class session, on topics specified later in this syllabus. During the class periods, discussion will center around points raised by the students in their written reflections, along with other issues in the readings that could be raised by the instructor or students during the period.

Required Texts: As indicated by the very title of the course, the primary readings will be from classic works of Christian spirituality. The books, all in paperback, are available for purchase at Newman Bookstore, located on the campus of Paulist College (3015 Fourth St., N.E.). They are also available on overnight loan at the Mullen Library circulation desk. The ten required works are as follows:

1. Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings. Translated and edited by Oliver Davies. London and New York: Penguin, 1995. ISBN: 0140433430.

2. John Ruusbroec: The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. Translated and edited by James A. Wiseman, O.S.B. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist, 1985. 0809127296.

3. Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. Translated by Elizabeth Spearing. New York: Penguin, 1999. 0140446737. (This work is also available in several other good translations. One is a Doubleday paperback, the other is in the Paulist Classics series. If you already have one of these, you may certainly use it.)

4. Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings. Edited by John Dillenberger. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972. 0385098766.

5. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Translated by Anthony Mottola, Ph.D. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Image Books, 1964. 0385024363. (This work appears in many editions. If you already have some other one, you may use it.)

6. The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, vol. 2. Translated by Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D., and Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1980. 0960087664.

7. John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 2000. 0834101580. (The volume on reserve in the library is the John and Charles Wesley volume in the Paulist Press series of Classics of Western Spirituality; you need read in it only A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.)

8. Selected Writings of Jonathan Edwards. 2nd ed. Edited by Harold Simonson. Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland, 2004. 1577663314.

9. Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Translated by John Clarke, O.C.D. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1996. 0935216588. (If you have either of the earlier editions of Clarke’s translation, use it. I would not, however, advise using any other translation, since Clarke’s is far more faithful to the original manuscripts.)

10. Thomas Merton, Spiritual Master: The Essential Writings. Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham. New York: Paulist, 1992. 0809133148.

Course Goals: The primary goals of the course are for the students to learn what were the basic spiritual teachings of the ten classic authors listed above and to be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each author in light of the Christian tradition as a whole (according to criteria drawn from Scripture and from the ecclesiastical and academic magisteria).

Goals for Student Learning: At the conclusion of the course, the students will be able to describe accurately the principal teachings of the ten classic authors read in this course and to give convincing reasons why the teachings of some could rightly be judged more beneficial than those of others for our contemporaries.

Course Requirements: The students should submit their reflection papers on the required readings in a timely manner and should participate actively in classroom discussion of the classic works and of their classmates’ reflections on those works (especially when the interpretations or judgments of other students differ from their own).

Expectations and Policies:Academic honesty: Academic honesty is expected of all CUA students. Faculty are required to initiate the imposition of sanctions when they find violations of

academic honesty, such as plagiarism, improper use of a student’s own work, cheating, and fabrication.  The following sanctions are presented in the University procedures related to Student Academic Dishonesty (from http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrityprocedures.cfm): “The presumed sanction for undergraduate students for academic dishonesty will be failure for the course. There may be circumstances, however, where, perhaps because of an undergraduate student’s past record, a more serious sanction, such as suspension or expulsion, would be appropriate. In the context of graduate studies, the expectations for academic honesty are greater, and therefore the presumed sanction for dishonesty is likely to be more severe, e.g., expulsion. ...In the more unusual case, mitigating circumstances may exist that would warrant a lesser sanction than the presumed sanction.” Please review the complete texts of the University policy and procedures regarding Student Academic Dishonesty, including requirements for appeals, at http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrity.cfm and http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad/integrity.cfm.

Other Policies or Expectations. Students are expected to submit their reflection papers on time, to be present for each class session, and to take an active part in classroom discussion. If a student is unable to attend on a given day, he or she should notify me as far in advance as possible.

Campus Resources for student support: Although it is highly advisable to purchase each of the classic texts for one’s personal library, each book is available on overnight reserve at the circulation desk in Mullen Library.

Accommodations for students with disabilities: Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss specific needs. Please contact Disability Support Services (at 202 319-5211, room 207 Pryzbyla Center) to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. To read about the services and policies, please visit the website: http://disabilitysupport.cua.edu.

Assessment: Grading for the course will be based on the quality of the reflection papers (80%) and on the quality of your contributions to the classroom discussions (20%). Accordingly, regular attendance at the class meetings and timely submission of the reflection papers are important. Papers will be graded according to the criteria of depth of insight, coherence of structure, and correctness of grammar and spelling.Each paper will receive a grade based on a scale of 1 to 10, the highest possible grade being 10. At the end of the course, the total grade for the papers will be converted to some percentage, with 80% being the highest possible. A grade for the quality of classroom discussion will also be given according to the criteria of regular participation, depth of insight, and soundness of judgment, with 20% being the highest possible grade for this component. To convert to letter grades, 93% or higher is an A, 90-92% is A-, 87-89% is B+, 83-86% is B, 80-82% is B-, any grade in the 70s is C, and anything below 70

is F. The CUA grading system for grad students is available at http://policies.cua.edu/academicgrad//gradesfull.cfm#iii

Course Schedule: The week-by-week schedule is given below. As indicated above, there is a written assignment for each week (except none for Ignatius of Loyola). Given that sometimes things become very busy, you may skip one written assignment if you wish without penalty (but anyone doing them all will get a bit of extra credit). For each assignment, there is a choice of topics, as indicated in the schedule below. The papers are to be sent to me by email file attachment, ideally in MS Word format (with the file extension “.doc” or “.docx”) or in Rich Text Format (extension “.rtf”) at least twenty-four hours in advance of our weekly class period so that I will have time to read them prior to class and so prepare topics that we will discuss (based largely on points that some of you will have raised in your papers). My CUA email address is wiseman@cua.edu I also suggest that you send your papers not only to me but to all of your classmates so that they, too, may (if they wish) read your reflections in advance. (For that purpose, I will make each of your CUA email addresses available to the entire class.)

There are, on average, about two hundred pages of reading per week. Most of it is by authors of the classics, but each of these readings is supplemented by material from leading contemporary scholars intended to set the classic work in its broader context and/or to discuss its relevance today. In most cases, the commentaries by these scholars are found in the introductions to the volumes of primary sources.

If you wish to consult with me outside of my normal office hours (as given at the beginning of this syllabus), we could arrange a mutually convenient time. Even for a meeting during office hours it would be helpful to get an appointment in advance.

Schedule of ReadingsJan. 12: Introduction to the course

Jan. 19: Holiday (M.L. King’s birthday)

Jan. 26: MEISTER ECKHARTIn Eckhart’s Selected Writings, read the following:

Davies’ Introduction (pp. xi-xxxviii)The Talks of Instruction (pp. 3-52)The Book of Divine Consolation (55-95)“On the Nobleman” (99-108)The selected German sermons up through Sermon 22 (111-209)

Feb. 2: JAN VAN RUUSBROECIn the volume John Ruusbroec, read the following:

Louis Dupré’s preface (xi-xv)My introduction (1-37)The Spiritual Espousals (41-152)The Sparkling Stone (155-184)

Feb. 9: JULIAN OF NORWICHRead the “long text” of Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love, including the introduction by Elizabeth Spearing (in the Penguin edition) or by the editor of whichever other edition you may be using). If you use the Paulist Classics edition, read other introductory material, since the introduction in the Paulist edition is overly long, tedious, and not very helpful. In its place, you could read the article about Julian in The New Catholic Encyclopedia.

Feb. 16: MARTIN LUTHERIn the volume Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings, read the following:

John Dillenberger’s note and his introduction (ix-xxxiii)All the material from pp. 3-165 (i.e., some of his prefaces, The Freedom of a

Christian, Two Kinds of Righteousness, and his Commentary on Galatians)

Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (363-402)

Mon., Feb. 23: TERESA OF AVILA (Part One)In the second volume of Teresa’s Collected Works, read the following:

Kavanaugh’s introduction to The Way of Perfection (15-36)The prologue, chapter 1, and chapters 19-42 of The Way of Perfection

(pp. 37-43 and 106-204)The introduction and text of her Meditations on the Song of Songs (207-60)

WED., FEB. 25: (an “administrative Monday”): IGNATIUS OF LOYOLARead Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, including the editor’s introduction to whichever edition you choose. The edition ordered for this course at Newman Bookstore is a Doubleday Image Book; if you use this edition, you need not read the appendix (scriptural texts for the meditations). Thus, you would have to read only up to page 142.

Mar. 2: Holiday (spring break)

Mar. 9: TERESA OF AVILA (Part Two)In the second volume of Teresa’s Collected Works, read Kavanaugh’s introduction to The Interior Castle as well as the entire text of that treatise (263-452)

Mar.16: JOHN WESLEYRead the essay “Wesleyan Spirituality,” by Robin Maas (to be distributed).Also read the entirety of the volume A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.

Mar. 23: JONATHAN EDWARDSRead the entirety of the volume Selected Writings of Jonathan Edwards.

Mar. 30: THERESE OF LISIEUXIn the volume Story of a Soul, read the entire volume (page numbers are those in the 3rd edition):

Introduction (ix-xxii)Prologue (1-8)Story of a Soul (9-259)Epilogue and appendices (261-88)

(This represents more pages per week than usual, but the work is not especially difficult to read. Omitting some chapters would result in the loss of the autobiographical thread.)

Apr. 6: THOMAS MERTON (Part One)In the volume Thomas Merton, Spiritual Master read the first half of the volume, that is, up through page 213.

Apr. 13: Holiday (Easter Monday)

Apr. 20: THOMAS MERTON (Part Two)In the volume Thomas Merton, Spiritual Master read the last half of the volume, starting at page 214.

Apr. 27: Discussion of your final set of reflection papers, on a more general topic than the previous papers.

The Reflection PapersFor each assignment, choose one of the three topics suggested for that date or else

come up with a similar topic that might be of greater personal interest to you. Write approximately three double-spaced pages (using 12-point font and normal, one-inch margins). This comes to about a thousand words. (You may write more if you feel you need to, but that in itself will not mean a better grade.) As indicated earlier in this syllabus, the paper should be sent to me by file attachment at least by 12:00 noon the previous day. Ideally send it as an MS Word document, i.e., with the file extension .doc or .docx (or as an .rtf file). Otherwise, you could just send the paper as a double-spaced email message. Be sure to indicate the number of the topic you chose to write about or, if you choose your own topic, indicate clearly what that is. My CUA email address is wiseman@cua.edu

Follow Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations in matters of punctuation, etc. If you cite a quoted passage parenthetically in your text, just include the author’s name and the page number; the parentheses follow the closing quotation mark but precede the period that concludes the sentence.

Due Jan. 25, on Meister Eckhart:1. The Book of Divine Consolation and “Of the Noble Man” together form what was entitled the Liber Benedictus. The American scholar Donald Duclow calls the Liber Benedictus “a work of pastoral care and consolation which aims to transform the

experience of suffering from within.” We need not doubt that this was Eckhart’s aim, but the way he approaches suffering is quite different from that of St. Bernard, whose sermon on the death of his brother Gerard was briefly mentioned in part one of this course. Eckhart, for example, says that nothing can cause suffering to someone who is just and adds that a good person should never complain about his harms and griefs but only about the fact that he does complain. Bernard, on the other hand, writes: “I grieve for you, my dearest Gerard, because you have been separated from me,” and later says that his weeping “is not a sign of a lack of faith; it indicates the human condition.”

In light of Bernard’s words, do you think that Eckhart’s teaching wrongly overlooks “the human condition,” or would you, on the other hand, applaud his attempt to help his readers rise above their grief and suffering?

2. Some commentators have suggested that Eckhart often, even regularly, was irresponsible in the boldness and/or obscurity of his words from the pulpit. Church leaders of his day certainly thought so, even condemning some of his claims as heretical or at least rash. Others have praised his sermons in the most laudatory terms. Richard Woods, e.g., in the final pages of his book Eckhart’s Way, writes that “his message is one of liberation…. It is the gospel of Jesus interpreted and fulfilled by a man profoundly attuned to his own times and because of that in tune with our times.”

From your reading of twenty-two of his German sermons, how would you evaluate Eckhart the preacher? Would you have condemned some of his statements if, ex hypothesi, you had been one of his judges?

3. One of Eckhart’s major themes is that of detachment, as noted by Oliver Davies in his Introduction (xxix-xxxi) and elsewhere by Bernard McGinn, who writes that detachment was for Eckhart “one religious practice absolutely essential for the return to God.” The late American psychiatrist and spiritual director Gerald May, in his book Addiction and Grace, wrote that “of all the concepts we will be discussing, detachment is the most widely misunderstood…. Instead of promoting a dry, uncaring state, detachment does just the opposite. It seeks a liberation of desire, an enhancement of passion, the freedom to love with all one’s being” (14-15).

From your reading of Eckhart, how would you describe what he means by detachment? Is this an ideal that you yourself would advocate?

Due Feb. 1, on Jan van Ruusbroec:1. Both Dupré in his preface and I in my introduction contrast Ruusbroec with Eckhart. Similarly, in his contribution to a collection of essays entitled The Emptying God (ed. John B. Cobb, Jr.; Orbis Books, 1990), the American Catholic theologian David Tracy wrote that in recent years he has come to a greater appreciation of the Christian Neoplatonic tradition as represented by Pseudo-Dionysius, Eckhart, Ruusbroec, and others, but of those two last-named mystics, Tracy says: “I am with Ruusbroec and not with Eckhart, . . . although I have come to believe that such a position is possible, if at all, only for one who has tried to think with Eckhart.” He explains his preference thus: “In the Christian construal, the most radical negations of the cloud of unknowing and the acknowledgement of nothingness must . . . yield to the self-manifestation of the Divine

Reality. Theologically, this means, as Ruusbroec clearly sees, that the radical indistinction, the no-thingness of Eckhart’s Godhead-beyond-God, will necessarily manifest itself in the Christian life as the self-manifesting Father-Son-Spirit.”

How would you yourself describe a basic difference between Eckhart and Ruusbroec? Would you be inclined, with Tracy, to side with Ruusbroec more than with Eckhart in their understanding of God? Why or why not?

2. Especially in book two of the Espousals, one is conscious of the intricate structure of the work. Among other things, Ruusbroec discusses three comings of the Bridegroom, four modes of the first coming, three “streams” characteristic of the second coming, and (in part four of book two) various ways of meeting God with and without intermediary, including seven gradations of the meeting with intermediary (corresponding to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit) and three modes of the meeting without intermediary (plus three deviations from this meeting).

What is your own appraisal of this structure with its divisions and subdivisions? Did you, for example, find helpful Ruusbroec’s orderly progression in describing aspects of one’s life of yearning for God, or was his approach too complicated?

3. Evelyn Underhill, author of Mysticism (which was largely responsible for the growth of interest in mysticism in the English-speaking world over the past hundred or so years), held Ruusbroec in extremely high regard. Among other things, she felt that parts of The Sparkling Stone were among the very finest things ever written in the Christian spiritual tradition.

What is your own evaluation of this relatively short treatise, its strengths and possible weaknesses? Among other things, how significant do you consider the way it diverges from (and thus corrects) the scheme of three “lives” in The Spiritual Espousals?

Due Feb. 8, on Julian of Norwich:1. We are studying Julian’s treatise primarily because of her extensive theological elaboration of the meaning of her “showings,” but her descriptions of the showings ought not be overlooked. Indeed, a comparison of the early, short text with the long text composed nearly twenty years later shows that the latter contains more graphic details in her descriptions of corporeal visions of Christ crucified. One Julian scholar, Denise Baker, opines that she did this “in order to present her visions in a manner designed to elicit her reader’s compassion for the suffering Christ.”

From your reading of the treatise, what are some of the specific ways in which any of Julian’s descriptive powers would likely enhance the devotion of readers today?

2. When we think of Julian, we almost inevitably think of her passages on the motherhood of God and the motherhood of Jesus. This was not an altogether novel theme in Julian’s time, but she treated it at considerable length and in ways that some modern scholars find very important. Denise Baker, for example, writes: “Julian’s discussion of Jesus’ maternal functions serves as a paradigm for creating God in a truly human image. As she explains, human persons, whether female or male, are created by

both God the Father and Jesus the Mother as a union of body and soul incorporating qualities associated with both sexes.”

What is your own evaluation of this aspect of Julian’s work? Would you yourself feel it appropriate to speak of Jesus as mother in any of your own lectures or articles?

3. Thomas Merton once wrote: “Julian is without doubt one of the most wonderful of all Christian voices. She gets greater and greater in my eyes as I grow older. . . . I think that Julian of Norwich is, with Newman, the greatest English theologian.”

What is your own evaluation of Julian as a theologian (as distinct, e.g., from someone who was able to give a vivid recounting of visions she once had)? What do you consider the strongest aspect of her theology? In which respect(s) do you perhaps find her theology questionable?

Due Feb. 15, on Martin Luther:1. Dillenberger suggests that some of Luther’s prefaces are, among other things, important as “clues to understanding the way in which he interprets Scripture.” From your reading of the prefaces on pages 3-41, how would you yourself describe his approach to the interpretation of Scripture? What in this approach seems perennially valid? What might be open to criticism?

2. Dillenberger further suggests that The Freedom of a Christian is the best short statement of the content and spirit of Luther’s faith, and that his 1531 Commentary on Galatians was one of the few texts that Luther himself considered worth saving, for in it “he had again hammered out the meaning of justification [= righteousness] with fresh power.” Having read these two works, how would you yourself describe the heart of Luther’s thought? What are its implications for Christian spirituality? To what extent do you agree (or not agree) with his position?

3. Issues about the relationship between church and state are still very much with us today. What aspects of Luther’s treatise Secular Authority do you consider pertinent to our contemporary situation? What, on the other hand, is too bound to the sixteenth-century context to be relevant to our own times?

Due Feb. 22, on Teresa of Avila, selections from The Way of Perfection and on her Meditations on the Song of Songs:l. Of The Way of Perfection Kavanaugh writes that it is “a practical book of advice and counsel destined to initiate the Carmelite nun into the life of prayer” (28). What “practical advice” in this work do you think would be helpful for initiating anyone into the life of prayer, even persons whose lifestyle is far different from that of a Carmelite nun?

2. The final sixteen chapters of the treatise are a commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, something that many authors have attempted both before and after Teresa’s time. Teresa herself writes that this one prayer has “the entire spiritual way contained in it, from the beginning stages until God engulfs the soul and gives it to drink abundantly from the

found of living water, which He said was to be found at the end of the way” (ch. 42:5). Having read these chapters, what were some of the points that you found most insightful?

3. Of the Meditations on the Song of Songs Kavanaugh writes: “Though small in size, these Meditations are both fascinating and fresh in insight. They merit all the attention given to other Teresian works” (213). Discuss why you either agree or disagree with this laudatory evaluation of the work.

To be discussed on Feb. 25, on Ignatius of Loyola (NO PAPER due on Ignatius):1. The first of Ignatius’s “directions” at the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises states that their whole purpose is to help the soul “free itself of all inordinate attachments” and then to seek and discover “the Divine Will regarding the disposition of one’s life.” There is no doubt that the Exercises have had the desired effect for many persons since the sixteenth century.

Do you judge that Ignatius’s various directives would be helpful to most people today in trying to discern God’s will, especially in major life-decisions? If you have made the Exercises yourself, what effect did they have on you? If you have not made them, did this reading incline you to want to do so? Why or why not?

2. It is undeniable that those coming to the Exercises today do so with a theology that is in some ways rather different from that of Ignatius and his times.

What would you judge to be the most significant difference between Ignatius’s understanding of God and that of many Christians today? Do you consider the difference so pronounced as to require an entirely different approach to discovering “the Divine Will regarding the disposition of one’s life”?

3. In these meditations, Ignatius frequently suggests an application of the senses, e.g., forming a mental image of such things as the torments of hell (the fifth exercise of week one) or various events in Christ’s life.

A number of our contemporaries, such as Kathleen Fischer in The Inner Rainbow, write about the importance of the imagination in one’s spiritual life. Did reading Ignatius’s Exercises lead you to want to cultivate this side of your own life? If so, how do you think this could best be done?

Due Mar. 8, on Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle :1. One of the more severe critics of some aspects of Teresa’s writings is the contemporary English Carmelite nun Ruth Burrows. In her Guidelines for Mystical Prayer she writes that Teresa, in the 4th, 5th, and 6th dwelling places, describes three forms of “absorbed” prayer: in the 4th the will alone is “held”; in the 5th the mind, too, is momentarily held; and in the 6th the whole person seems carried away. Burrows comments: “Teresa sees here a gradation: the more intense the emotional experience, the deeper the prayer. It is this assessment of prayer by emotional intensity which we reject. . . . A person can be absorbed [in God] and yet never know the emotional states Teresa speaks of. On the other hand, a person may abound in [these states] and be very far from . . . total obsession with God.”

This is a serious charge: that Teresa is forever confusing, indeed identifying, phenomena of a psychic nature with mystical grace itself. Do you yourself agree with this criticism? More basically, what criteria would allow you to make a firm judgment on so delicate a question?

2. Concerning the states described toward the end of the treatise (especially in the sixth and seventh dwelling places), how would you answer Kieran Kavanaugh’s question in the Introduction: “Is it not useless for people to read about mystical prayer and favors when they do not themselves, for whatever reason, experience the same things?”

3. E. W. T. Dicken, who has written a fine study of Teresa and John of the Cross entitled The Crucible of Love, says that it may seem surprising that in the works of these two mystics “there is less specific guidance on methods of prayer than on the Christian way of life in general.” They both “firmly decline to formulate any structured methods at all. . . . Greater prominence is given to guidance on living the Christian life and to the importance of growth in Christian virtue.”

With regard to Teresa in particular, do you agree with this assessment? If you do, what do you consider the principal guidelines for “living the Christian life” which she offers in The Interior Castle? What specific points does she make about the interaction between the quality of one’s life and the quality of one’s prayer?

Due Mar.15, on John Wesley:1. Most Wesley scholars consider A Plain Account of Christian Perfection to be John Wesley’s major work. But Robin Maas notes in her essay on Wesleyan spirituality that Wesley’s choice of the term “Christian perfection” to describe his vision of the process of sanctification caused endless debate and confusion, yet he stood fast by the term.

Just what was his understanding of Christian perfection? Do you yourself agree with Wesley that perfection, as described by him, is indeed something that can be attained this side of the grave? Would you yourself use the term “Christian perfection” to describe your vision of what the life of a Christian should be?

2. Maas also writes that even though Wesley “confidently preached justification by faith in line with continental Reformation theology, yet he did not stop there.” A hint that he did not follow the classical Reformers in all respects may be found in the fact that neither Luther nor Calvin was included in the fifty volumes of the Christian Library that Wesley compiled between 1750-1756. Having read major works by Luther, how would you say Wesley most differed from him?

3. Perhaps the greatest Methodist scholar of the past century was the late Albert Outler of Southern Methodist University. He once wrote that John Wesley, together with his brother Charles, summed up the historical Christian faith in a way suitable “for plain people” and that this summation can still be for us today a living resource.

Does your reading of Wesley’s account of Christian perfection incline you to agree with Outler? Or might you, on the other hand, conclude that such a treatise is more suited for a spiritual elite than for “plain people”?

Due Mar. 22, on Jonathan Edwards (for Edwards, there are four possible topics):1. What does the Personal Narrative tell us about Edwards’s opinion of himself, about his relationship with Christ, and about his understanding of God’s “absolute sovereignty” (including the doctrine of double predestination)? Are there any specific ways in which this early autobiographical account helps you better understand the theological positions that Edwards took in his later works?

2. Harold Simonson’s introduction says of the sermon “A Divine and Supernatural Light” that “none more firmly establishes Edwards’s whole system of thought” (5).

Consider this sermon in relationship with the excerpts from his treatise on religious affections (123-30). Taken together, what do these works tell us about Edwards’s understanding of genuine religion? What is your own evaluation of his position?

3. Edwards’s most famous sermon is certainly “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” even though it is not representative of the tone of most of his preaching.

Contrast his understanding of God in this sermon with Julian of Norwich’s understanding. There are obvious, even galling, differences, but is there any way in which the two could be reconciled? Or is one faced with the choice of concluding that one of them (at least) is wrong?

4. Edwards’s “Farewell Sermon” (105-20) was preached after his congregation at Northampton voted overwhelmingly to remove him from his position as their pastor, primarily because they considered him to have been too stringent on the question of who was eligible for baptism and the reception of communion at the service of the Lord’s Supper. Commenting on this sermon, his modern biographer George Marsden has written: “Much of the congregation must have sat in sullen indignation as Edwards implied that he would be exonerated while many of them would be found irredeemably guilty on the last day.”

Whether or not Marsden is factually correct about the mind of Edwards’s congregation, what does this sermon tell us about Edwards’s own values and about the way he dealt with what was surely an embarrassing deposition (and one that put him at some risk of not being able to provide for his family’s needs)?

Due Mar. 29, on Thérèse of Lisieux:1. In his work entitled The Making of a Modern Saint, Barry Ulanov notes at one point that many aspects of Thérèse’s style can put one off, for the language (and even her frequent use of underlining and capital letters) may well appear cloying and saccharine to modern readers. But Ulanov goes on to write that if a person allows himself or herself to turn from Thérèse’s work because of this, that would manifest a regrettable failure to recognize her genuine strength and virtue.

How did you yourself react to reading Thérèse? If you did find her style disagreeable, how (if at all) did you get beyond that so as to come to an appreciation of her as a classic author?

2. What do you consider the most significant ways in which she grew spiritually, both in the years she spent with her family and once she entered the Carmel? From this latter part of her life, what might be most instructive even for persons who do not live in a cloistered environment?

3. Is the “trial of faith” described in chapter ten (a manuscript originally written for the prioress, Marie de Gonzague) basically the same as that “crisis of faith” that is common to most young people as they mature, or would you locate it elsewhere on a “map” of spiritual experience and growth? What does her way of facing this trial have to teach Christians today?

Due April 5, on the first half of the Thomas Merton volume:1. The selection from Merton’s early autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, ends with the words, “Father, I want to become a Catholic.”

From what you read in the preceding forty or so pages of this selection, what were major factors that led up to his making that statement? Do you think some (or all) of these factors are typical of anyone’s conversion (even ongoing conversion within the tradition of one’s birth)?

2. Cunningham’s introductory paragraphs to “Fire Watch” (107) say that this piece may have become “too celebrated,” but if so, this is because “it is one of his most perfectly realized prose pieces … and, on close reading, one of his most dense.”

To what specific qualities would you yourself attribute the fame of this piece? What, in particular, does “Fire Watch” reveal about Merton’s relationship with God?

3. Cunningham also suggests (31) that what marks Merton off from other widely read monastic authors of the 20th century “was his sensitivity to the modernist high culture of our time,” his ability to enter “the larger world of cultural discourse while rooted in a tradition that gave a peculiar weight and a ring of authenticity to his words.”

What are some specific instances of such sensitivity in the selections from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander? What does this work tell us about Merton’s understanding of his monastic vocation and his relationship to the world outside the cloister? Is his understanding one that you yourself would affirm?

Due April 19, on the second half of the Thomas Merton volume:1. As you know, especially during the final decade of his life Merton became more and more interested in Far Eastern religions. That interest is illustrated in our anthology’s excerpts from The Asian Journal (223-37) and in the essay “A Christian Looks at Zen” (399-420), a piece that Cunningham says “distills Merton’s thinking about Eastern thought.”

What were some of the major challenges for the West that Merton found in Zen, Taoism, and Hinduism? What did he expect from dialogue with one or another of these traditions? How convincing do you find his position?

2. Cunningham refers to “Rain and the Rhinoceros” as “a beautiful essay,” a judgment with which I think you will agree. But it is also hard-hitting, especially in some of Merton’s observations about the city and “city people,” which most (or all) of us are. How valid are his criticisms in this regard?

3. Cunningham suggests that the final two selections (“A Letter on the Contemplative Life” and “Contemplatives and the Crisis of Faith”) illustrate Merton’s ongoing efforts “to articulate both what he meant by the contemplative life and its availability to all who are authentic searchers.” Assuming that this “crisis of faith” is still with us, how helpful do you find Merton’s reflections in these two pieces?

Due April 26, a general question on the course as a whole:Presumably all of you are preparing either to teach or to begin (or continue) working in some sort of pastoral ministry. Some of your work may also include serving as a spiritual guide or director. In light of the work you did in this course during the semester, give your written reflections on what will presumably be of most benefit to you in the future (and why). This might be familiarity with one or more of the authors read, it might be your having heard how some of your classmates reacted to the readings (perhaps in ways radically different from your own), it might even have been the discipline of having had to write one of these brief essays week after week! (You could, if you wish, also indicate one or more aspects of the course that will likely not be so beneficial in the future.)