Rachel Fulton
Department of History
The University of Chicago
Spring 2006
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES: HISTORY AND PRACTICE
This course considers spiritual
exercises from both Christian and non-Christian traditions as tools for the
cultivation of mental, physical and emotional states associated in many
traditions with the experience of ecstasy, enlightenment or Òflow.Ó Readings will be taken from both East
and West; practices to be considered will include, among others, the recitation
of the psalms for the Benedictine office, meditations on the life of Christ,
yogic asanas and martial kata. The
purpose of the course will be to situate such exercises both historically and
practically, with particular emphasis on understanding the processes by which
such exercises may contribute to the experience of prayer.
Books available
for purchase from the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore and on Reserve in Regenstein
Library
Michael Raposa, Meditation and the Martial Arts, University
Press of Virginia [ISBN 0813922380]
RB1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in English, ed. Timothy Fry, Liturgical Press [ISBN 0814612725]
Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali, trans. Barbara Stoler
Miller, Bantam Books [ISBN 0553374281]
The Philokalia, Volume 4: The Complete Text,
Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Markarios of Corinth, trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos
Ware, Faber & Faber [ISBN 057119382X]
Gertrud the Great of Helfta, Spiritual Exercises, trans. Jack Lewis,
Cistercian Publications [ISBN 0879074493]
Thomas ˆ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, trans. Leo
Shirley-Price, Penguin [ISBN 0140440275]
Ignatius Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius:
Based on Studies in the Language of the Autograph, trans. Louis J. Puhl,
Loyola Press [ISBN 0829400656]
John Bunyan, The PilgrimÕs Progress, Dover Press [ISBN
0486426750]
The Bhagavad-Gita: KrishnaÕs Counsel in Time of War, trans. Barbara Stoler Miller, Bantam Books [ISBN
0553213652]
Yuasa Yasuo, The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy,
trans. Shingenori Nagatomo and Monte S. Hull, State University of New York
Press [ISBN 0791416240]
Your Word is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on
Contemplative Prayer,
trans. Arthur Green and Barry Holtz, Jewish Lights Publishing [ISBN 1879045257]
Course
Requirements
1. Morning pages. This is an exercise described by Julia
Cameron in The ArtistÕs Way: A Course in Discovering
and Recovering Your Creative Self (1993). Every morning, first thing in the morning (before showering, before breakfast,
above all, before leaving home), write three pages, 8 1/2" x 11",
longhand, stream-of-consciousness, as fast as possible, about anything. This should take you about 30 minutes,
depending on how fast you write.
You will not turn these pages in.
You will not get a grade for them as such. But you will do them because they are an extraordinarily
effective tool for promoting creative, spiritual growth. You will, on Sunday of each week in the
course, post a brief note on the course Chalk discussion board Òchecking inÓ
with answers to the following questions: how many days this week did you do
your morning pages? How was the
experience for you? Take about
twenty minutes to respond. (10 check-ins total, 10% of your grade)
2. Practice. Every week,
in conjunction with the reading assigned for discussion on Tuesdays, you will
be given a practice to prepare for Thursday. Some of these practices will require you to bring additional
materials to class; others will require you to take on a particular practice
highlighted in the reading for the week.
All are intended to challenge you to explore the practices we will be
reading about as experiences rather than simply as objects of academic
inquiry. After each practice, you
will write 2-3 pages (typed, double-spaced), reflecting on what the practice
has taught you in relation to the reading that we have done for the week. You will hand these reflections in to
my office (HM-E 686) by noon on Friday each week. (9 comments total, 40% of
your grade)
3. Project. This project
will be due Friday, June 2, by 5pm to my office. It may be a paper orÉsomething else. It may be an historical investigation
of a particular spiritual practice that we have touched upon or a handbook of
spiritual exercises modeled on one or another of those that we have read. It may be an image for use in
meditation or a series of prayers.
If it is a paper, it should be 12-15 pages long (typed, double-spaced),
properly researched and footnoted.
If it is something else, i.e. not an academic-style essay, it should be
accompanied by a description of 8-10 pages (typed, double-spaced), explaining
how it is intended to work as a stimulus for spiritual experience or
ÒflowÓ. You will be asked
mid-quarter (May 2) for short descriptions of what you plan to do for your
project. (50% of your grade)
Reading and Practice Schedule
Week 1
March
28 Introduction: Work, Play, Expertise and Flow
March
30 NO CLASS
Raposa,
Meditation and
the Martial Arts
Week 2
April
4 Lectio divina
Psalms
Rule of St.
Benedict
April
6 Practice: Psalms
Week 3
April
11 Yoga
Patanjali,
Sutra
April
13 Practice: Posture
Week 4
April
18 Stillness
St. Symeon the New Theologian, Philokalia,
vol. 4, pp. 11-15, (25-63), 64-75
Theoliptos, Metropolitan of Philadelphia, Philokalia, vol. 4, pp. 175-87
St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia, vol. 4, pp. 207-11, (212-52), 259-61, 263-86
St. Gregory Palamas, Philokalia, vol. 4, pp. 287-92, 331-45, 418-25
(Recommended reading in parentheses)
April
20 Practice: Attention
Week 5
April
25 Liturgy
Gertrud the Great, Spiritual Exercises
April
27 Practice: Chant
(Meet in Bond Chapel with Eric Budzynski)
Week 6
May
2 Imitation
Thomas ˆ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
May
4 Practice: Image
Week 7
May
9 Discernment
Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises
May
11 Practice: ArtistÕs Date
Week 8
May
16 Allegory
John Bunyan, PilgrimÕs Progress
May
18 Practice: Masks
Week 9
May
23 Battle
Bhagavad
Gita
May
25 Practice: Body
Yuaso
Yasuo, The
Body, Self-Cultivation and Ki-Energy
Week 10
May
30 Fire
Hasidic masters on contemplative prayer
June
1 Practice: God
(No practice comment due this week)
Final Projects Due Friday, June 2, by 5 pm in
Harper East 686