Spring Adult Learning
Adult Learning at Central for the Spring 2013 is broken up into two terms: February 3 - March 17 and April 7 - May 19. One class, Feasting on the Word, spans both terms.
BOTH TERMS | February 3 – May 19, 2013
Study of one of the Lectionary texts for each Sunday.
Leaders: Dr. Beth Paulsen, Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary and clergy affiliate at CPC,1st Term; Dr. Raj Nadella, Assistant Professor of New Testament, 2nd Term
Text Title: Feasting on the Word
The Feasting on the Word Curriculum: Teaching the Revised Common Lectionary is an ecumenical resource that incorporates the uniqueness of the award-winning Feasting on the Word commentaries. Each week it addresses one of the biblical texts appointed for that Sunday from four perspectives: theological, exegetical, homiletical, and pastoral. Location: The Community Room
FIRST TERM | February 3 – March 17
SOJOURNER CLASS (Meeting Location: The Brotherhood Room--off Tull Fellowship Hall)
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More Challenges of Our Faith | February 3 - 17
Leader: Ed Carwile, CPC member
Through the eyes and short videos of Rob Bell, nationally known pastor and speaker, we will focus on issues that affect our Christian faith.
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Development Skills and the Psalms | Feb. 24 - March 17
How the Psalms can be used in individual and collective development.
Leader: The Rev. Barry Snyder, clergy affiliate member of CPC and Director of Development for Central Outreach & Advocacy Center
Our human experience is a journey of expanding consciousness both individually and collectively. We can map our journey of expanding consciousness through sequential stages of development and faith. We will discuss how the Psalms can be used as a guide in conjunction with developmental models for human growth and understanding
KEYSTONE CLASS (Meeting Location: Taylor Conference Room off Tull Fellowship Hall)
The class examines “What is goodness?” from a variety of fields using examples from life, literature, and film.
Leader: Dr. Sarah Cook, CPC member and Professor of Psychology, Georgia State University
Text : In Search of Goodness , Edited by Ruth W. Grant
Bombarded with news of evil daily, the class will take time to consider “What is goodness?” Reading psychological, philosophic, literary, religious, and political perspectives, the class will examine moral questions and phenomena with examples from life, literature, film, and their own experience.
ISSUES IN THEOLOGY CLASS (Meeting Location: Rand Chapel)
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Selected Topics from Paul Ricoeur’s Philosophy of Religion
Explore with us how Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology might illumine our understanding of religion.
Leader: Rick Wornat, CPC Member
Text Title: Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and Imagination by Paul Ricoeur
This class will select from a collection of essays of France’s greatest Reformed philosopher of the 20th century in order to stimulate our thinking on such topics as the nature of religious language, the limits of reason in the study of religion, hope and the structure of philosophical systems, and the relationship of love and justice.
FAITH AND FAMILY CLASS (Meeting Location: The Parlor off Tull Fellowship Hall)
This series will encourage us to listen within for wisdom about meaning and purpose.
Leader: The Rev. Mary Anona Stoops, wife, mother, homemaker, educator, spiritual director and clergy affiliate member of CPC.
Text Title: Let Your Life Speak Text Author: Parker Palmer
The midlife often poses hard questions about meaning and purpose and can be a time of taking inventory of the direction of our lives. With wisdom and compassion Parker Palmer’s book Let Your Life Speak offers counter questions that may guide us we seek to live more authentically and courageously into the lives we have been graced with. This series will be conversational and invite reflection on our journeys and the well-being of our hearts.
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SECOND TERM | April 7 – May19
ISSUES IN THEOLOGY CLASS (Meeting Location: Rand Chapel)
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Selected Essays of Marilynne Robinson
Take the opportunity to engage with novelist Marilynne Robinson’s non-fiction writings.
Leader: Chris Sciarrone, CPC member
Text Title: The Death of Adam by Marilynne Robinson
No one currently writing in English in the Reformed Tradition surpasses the lucidity of Marilynne Robinson and the breadth of her disparate intellectual interests. Join with Chris Sciarrone, Central’s most knowledgeable and enthusiastic reader of Marilynne Robinson, for stimulating discussions of a variety of her essays with a special focus on her take on Darwinism and Human exceptionalism.
KEYSTONE CLASS (Meeting Location: Taylor Conference Room off Tull Fellowship Hall)
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Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
How our spiritual goals fundamentally change, if we’re lucky, as we age.
Text Title: Falling Upward
Text Author: Richard Rohr
Leaders: Todd Evans, CPC member, and Mary Stoops, Central Clergy Affiliate
As we mature spiritually, we need to see ourselves in a different and more life-giving way. This message of "falling down" ---- that is in fact moving upward --- is the most resisted and counterintuitive of messages in the world's religions, including and most especially Christianity.
SOJOURNER CLASS (Meeting Location: The Brotherhood Room--off Tull Fellowship Hall)
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Becoming the Beloved Community
An exploration of the fullness of human life and our deepest human vocation.
Text: Jean Vanier: Essential Writings by Jean Vanier
Leader: The Rev.Trace Haythorn, clergy affiliate member of CPC and Executive Director of the Frazer Center
Jean Vanier, a former Navy officer and son of Canadian diplomats, met three men with developmental disabilities in 1964. Jean bought a small house to share in community life with these men. In his words, “I moved from the world of theories and ideas about human beings to discover what it really meant to be human.”
FAITH AND FAMILY CLASS (Meeting Location: The Parlor off Tull Fellowship Hall)
Spring is a busy time of year for families, so find refuge in this unstructured time to connect with friends and reflect on life together.
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