Postgraduate Short Courses

Mystery of Love

Online Synchronous

Course Leader: To be announced

Date: Thursdays 22 September – 24 November 2022

Time:  15:00–17:00

This module investigates the philosophical and theological features of love. It looks at some of the most seminal thinkers in the history of theology and philosophy, from the pre-Christian era up to the 21st century. The module has an ecumenical character and examines love from a Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant perspective. It also analyses some of the most sophisticated critiques of Christian love and explores how theology can respond to these critiques.   The module revolves around key concepts such as agapē, erōs and philia and centres on the careful study of primary texts (in translations where not originally in English). Every session begins with an introductory lecture on the life and work of the author discussed in class that highlights the key ideas in the selected text. In the second half of the session there is time for guided group discussion. You are invited to critically reflect on your own understanding of love. The wide range of different texts will help you to broaden your intellectual horizon and to develop and refine your theological position.

The following questions will be addressed: What is the relationship between agapē, erōs and philia? How does Christian theology deal with the tension between preferential love (erotic love, friendship) and the demand for universal love (neighbour love)? Is reciprocity an intrinsic part of Christian love, or is the highest form of love unilateral? Does love occur spontaneously, or is it a virtue that needs to be acquired? What is the relationship between different models of love and metaphysics (esp. the relationship between nature/creation and grace)?

Spiritual Direction in the Ignatian Tradition 

Online Intensive Synchronous 

Course Leader: To be announced

Dates: Saturdays 4 February and 4 March 2023

Time:  11:00 to 17:00pm Synchronous (Online) Distance Learning

This module will enable students to examine and reflect critically upon the theory and practice of Christian spiritual direction with a specific focus on the Ignatian Tradition. Building on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, this module will explore the dynamics of spiritual direction and issues that arise in the pastoral ministry of spiritual accompaniment. Students will examine the theory and practice of Christian spiritual direction with a specific focus on the Ignatian Tradition, engage with the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, reflect on pastoral ministry through the lens of spiritual direction, explore the issues that arise in the pastoral ministry of spiritual accompaniment, understand the dynamics of spiritual direction, identify the processes within spiritual direction and the roles of director and directee.

Theology and Practice of Mission

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Course Leaders: To be announced

Dates: Tuesdays  17 January to 21 March 2023

Time:  Lectures 10:00 – 12:30

The Module will focus on understandings of missiology in key historical contexts, aiming to provide an understanding of missiology as a theological discipline. It will being with a particular emphasis on the scriptural interpretations that lay foundations for diverse models of understanding mission, and the way in which these understandings shifted in patristic and modern periods. The motivations behind the practice of mission will be considered from a critical philosophical approach, and particular examples will be addressed through historical analysis.

Building from this inter-disciplinary understanding of missiological conceptions and activities, the module will address particular questions such as the contrast between theologies of home and overseas mission.  The module is directed primarily at developing critical and reflective thinking for those engaged in mission, or who have an interest in the topic.  Students should therefore be prepared to think reflexively, as well as critically engaging with historical and theological readings of mission.  The student must engage an enquiring mind, organise material critically be prepared to accept the  challenge of others to thoughts, ideas and analysis, and present their own position cogently.

Students will be required to receive material (choice of face-to-face and online), to submit regular formative writing and to prepare for, and engage in, seminars (face-to-face or online).  The assessment will comprise a blend of coursework pieces and an essay, the title of which is to be agreed with the course deliverer.

Models of Chaplaincy

Course Leader:  To be announced

Dates: 26 September, 17 October, 14 November, 30 January, 13 March, 

Time: 13.30 – 17.00  Online Synchronous Distance Learning

In this module you will reflect theologically and professionally on contemporary chaplaincy, drawing on inherited models and approaches, but considering and evolving models of chaplaincy for today and for the future. The aim of the module is to enable you to consider how chaplaincy practice addresses, and is shaped by:  different faith and belief traditions; the context in which chaplaincy is situated (such as the hospital, prison, workplace, etc. where you serve); and contemporary religious, spiritual, pastoral and moral needs.

Ethics in Professional Context

Online Synchronous 

Course Leader:  To be announced

Dates/Times: 8 May – 6 June 2023, Mondays
17.00 – 19.00 + Intensive Saturday 14 October 2023 13.30 – 17.00

This interactive, interdisciplinary module is designed to explore ethical concepts as they form, relate and critique a particular professional context, with a view to helping students develop their own foundations and tools for reasoning about their own professional ethics. Elements such as sources of ethical thinking and moral imagination; central concepts such as equality, common good, human dignity; the value and spirituality of work; the role of ethics in society, all contribute to the theological context in which a particular profession will be approached.

Various case studies will be introduced throughout the course in order to address these questions and discuss the possibilities of responsible professional practice. It will draw on key philosophical and religious issues and ideas about being human, discussed in the shared core module ‘Human Condition’ in relation to professional practice. Each year a different professional context will be considered and it will include: market economy, prison service, healthcare, media and education.

Moral Development, Reasoning and Decision Making

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Course Leader: Dr Anna Abram

Dates: Mondays 16 January  – 20  March 2023

Time:  17:00 to 19:00

This module will introduce the students to different ways of thinking about moral matters and dilemmas within normative philosophical ethics. It will inquire into such questions as ‘what makes an act right or wrong and the human being good or bad?’; ‘how should one live?’ (a Socratic question), ‘what is the good life? (an Aristotelian question), ‘how do we assess difficult moral situations?’; ‘where our principles come from?’; ‘why be moral?’, ‘do moral facts exist?’; ‘what does moral living require of us, both as human beings and within our specific social, professional and vocational roles?’ In searching for answers the students will consult moral theories which are usually grouped into three broad categories: deontological (concerned with
acts that fulfil our duties), teleological (concerned with the consequences of our acts; utilitarianism is its best known representative), and virtue-centered (focused upon the formation of good character with the virtues as its traits). The students will be helped to think in an informed and structured way about the meaning, role and patterns of moral reasoning
and decision making within deontology, teleology, and virtue ethics.

Selected moral psychological theories of ego, cognitive and affective development as well as contemporary discussions within social and neuro psychology will also be studied, to offer a contained interdisciplinary element to this introductory module. Other themes for investigation will include: major influences on ethical debate (relativism; theistic and non-theistic approaches; science); conscience; Human Rights; law and morality.

Christian Spirituality in Context

Course Leaders: To be announced

Dates: Wednesdays 5 October – 7 December 2022

Time:  14:00 to 16:30

Leader:  To be announced

This module is compulsory for students taking the MA in Spirituality E and W but is accessible to those with no experience of the topic. It aims to introduce students to some of the major figures and themes in Christian spirituality (from the spirituality of the Early Church, to early monastic expressions, the Late Middle Ages, the early modernity of 19th century, to the present day). The approach is twofold: a) to consider the socio-historic and theological context in which they appeared and developed; b) to create awareness of the plurality of expression in Christian spirituality over time, but also of the elements of continuity, both in the practice and the theology that underpins it. In relation to this, contemporary issues will also be addressed, particularly the way in which current perceptions and attitudes around issues of faith, spirituality, culture and identity in a pluralistic, multicultural and multi-faith modern society impact both the spirituality of individuals and the reciprocal dialogue between contemporary society and Christian spirituality.

Life in Liturgy: Spiritual Traditions of the Christian East

Online Asynchronous (10 weeks)

Leader:  To be announced

Dates: Tuesdays 9 May – 11 July 2023

Time:  15.00 – 17.00

This postgraduate module explores essential aspects that characterise and define Orthodox spirituality – the interconnections between liturgical life and communitarian/societal understanding. It will cover ways in which Orthodox theology is implicitly communitarian (and therefore pastoral), theology as holistic: inseparable connection between the liturgical and sacramental life, social action and commitment, and the concept of theosis as ‘engine’ and ultimate goal of Orthodox theology and spirituality, as well as monasticism, prayer, inner life, the sacrament of the brother, Catholicity and Life according to Holy Trinity.

Ecumenism in Theory and Practice

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Dates: Thursdays, 11 May to 13 July 2023

Time:  3:00pm – 5:00pm

This module aims to introduce students to the history, methodology, breadth and achievements of the movement for Christian unity. It pays particular attention to issues of ecclesiology in order to enable students to engage constructively with the challenges of division within the Christian community. The module explores ecumenism as praxis, as dynamic theological enterprise, and as permanent calling to all theology. The module also tackles the concept of unity and its theological implications. It studies the theological and ecclesiological implications of a variety of interchurch agreements and theological texts involving mostly the larger, longer-established Christian churches, placing these in historical and cultural
context. The module addresses ecumenical activity between particular, local ecclesial communities, but also in global ecumenical platforms, seeking to relate national and worldwide patterns of ecumenism to local Christian experience.

Themes in Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Care

Online Asynchronous and Synchronous (10 weeks)

Course Leader:  Rev’d Dr Adam Ployd

Dates: 17 January ­–16 March 2022

Asynchronous 17 January 2022 – 16 March 2022

Synchronous 27 October, 19 January, 16 March 2022 4:00pm – 6:30pm

This module explores the history of pastoral theology and the practices of pastoral care in a variety of Christian traditions. It uncovers ways in which these dimensions are now in dialogue with multi-cultural, multi-faith and non-religious settings and insights. It explores some of the ways in which social science thinking and practice has entered into critical dialogue with established ecclesial practices and understandings.

Students will be expected to contribute their own experiences, practice and contexts into the emerging and developing conversation surrounding contemporary pastoral theology as a discipline and its outworking in Church, chaplaincy and wider society today.

Rev’d Dr Adam Ployd is Vice Principal of Wesley House, Cambridge

Secularisation in the Christian World

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Dates: 26 September to 28 November 2022

Time:  2pm to 4:30pm

This postgraduate module introduces students to one of the most pervasive paradigms about religion in modern society: the process of secularisation.  Considering European and world contexts, students will study the tenets of the secularisation paradigm (rationalisation, pluralisation, structural differentiation, the contraction in the scope and role of religion in contemporary society) and perspectives which draw attention to related but different processes (religious change, Western European exceptionalism, different models of state – church relations, alternate modernities etc.).

In mapping the various responses and trends triggered by the contextual encounter between conditions of modernity and religion, this module will consider both European and world contexts.  Students will be encouraged to reflect on the ways in which their context, religiosity and, in some cases, ministry are shaped by (post) modernity and the prevailing secularisation of the societal order.
Equally, students will be encouraged to explore the ways in which an awareness of current socioreligious realities can produce a fresh understanding of these issues.

Christian Spirituality in the Contemporary World

Online Asynchronous (10 weeks)

Dates:8 May – 26 June 2023
Time:  14:00 to 16 :30pm

This module will consider the role and shape of Christian Spirituality in the contemporary world East and West. Students will examine the impact of secularisation on expressions of Christian spirituality East and West. The will consider the subjective turn within western society and the challenge presented to Christian spirituality by New Age and secular spiritualities. The idea of spiritual capital and its place within wider societal evaluations of spirituality. They explore the emergence of spirituality as an important component of well-being within contemporary society (e.g., healthcare, education etc), and the challenges that such expressions of spirituality pose for Christian spirituality. They will also examine expressions of spirituality that respond to these challenges, e.g. emerging church, fresh expression of church, and contemporary critiques of these. They will consider how psychology and continental philosophy have come to inform different understandings of Christian Spirituality over the past 100 years. Students will also examine psychological accounts of spiritual development, and contemporary concepts of ‘experience’ and ‘self’ and how these differ from antique and medieval notions of spiritual anthropology and humans as imago dei.

Development of World Christianity

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Date: Tuesdays 9May to 11 July 2023

This module addresses the theme of the development of world Christianity by considering the historical development of the World church within a single continent. There will be a particular political focus to this history, by considering the role of the Christian church in the political development of the state, the relationships between Christian denominations and the interaction with other faiths, both indigenous and incoming. Students will be supported to critically reflect on such topics by reviewing approaches taken to such questions from anthropology, historical analysis and political theology.

A major resource for teaching and learning will be a local archive held at the Cambridge Centre  for World Christianity. This includes the St Augustine collection, formerly at Canterbury Cathedral and altogether contains extensive archival material of social history, associated with world mission in diverse parts of the globe (https://www.cccw.cam.ac.uk/archives/). The module will aim to resource students to independently access such archives. Guidance will be given on the use of this material, with a critical approach. The student must engage an enquiring mind, organise material critically and be prepared to accept the challenge of others to thoughts, ideas and analysis.

The archive is already partly online and is in the process of being entirely digitised. Once the archive is sufficiently digitised to ensure parity for distance learning students, you may register  to take the module by distance learning if attendance at the face to face classes is impossible for you for reasons of distance. The course is currently planned for face to face teaching over a ten week trimester.

Children’s Spirituality

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Course Leader: Dr Razvan Porumb

Dates: 22 May (13.00 – 17.00), 19 June (13.00 – 17.00), 3 October 2023 (13.30 – 17.30),

31 October 2023 (13.30 – 17.30), 21 November 2023 (13.30 – 17.30)

This module is designed to introduce students to research within Children’s Spirituality. It will provide students with background knowledge, introduce students to current research and consider what supports and hinders Children’s Spirituality. The module will encourage students to consider and evaluate their own contexts in the light of research into Children’s Spirituality.

Philosophy and Theology

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Dates: 19 January ­– 23 March 2023

Time:  15:00 – 17.30

This module investigates the relationship between theology and philosophy. The precise theme that will be discussed may change from year to year. Possible foci are topics such as ‘faith and reason’, ‘evil’, ‘divine and human action’, ‘language/semiotics’, ‘religious epistemology’, etc.  The aim of the module is to familiarize you with the most important positions, movements and schools in Philosophical Theology. The question of how we are to conceive the relationship between theology and philosophy is theologically of utmost importance and has consequences for all aspects of human life: anthropology, politics, culture, etc.

You will learn how to understand, interpret and contextualize theological and philosophical texts written by leading religious thinkers. The module discusses texts from the Continental tradition, Analytic Philosophy of Religion and Russian Religious Philosophy. Prior knowledge of philosophical theology and philosophy of religion is an advantage, but no prerequisite to attend the module. To make the most of this module you should be intellectually curious and willing to meticulously analyse dense and complex texts. You are invited to critically reflect on your own presuppositions regarding the relationship between  theology and philosophy. The wide range of different texts will help you to broaden your intellectual horizon and to develop and refine your own position.

Celtic and Medieval Spirituality

Online Intensive Synchronous

Dates: Monday 23 January – Wednesday 25 January 2023,

Times: 13.00 – 17.00 each day

This module will enable students to evaluate key shifts in modern historiographical approaches to Celtic and medieval spirituality, e.g., whether Celtic spirituality is a modern construct. Assess the relationships between spirituality, theology, ecclesiology, science, politics, literature and art in medieval and Celtic  thought. It will examine the relationship between Celtic and Medieval Christian spirituality and those of other religious tradition, especially Paganism, Judaism, and Islam. It will also consider the role of women in the Celtic and medieval church and their contribution to spirituality, and the place and function of the eremitic and coenobitical traditions.

Christian Mysticism East and West

Online Asynchronous (10 weeks)

Dates: 10 May – 28 June 2023, Wednesdays,

Time:  15.30 – 18.00

This module will give students an overview of the historical development of the Christian Mystical tradition East and West. It will introduce students
to key themes and debates in the study of Christian mysticism, including the relative importance of experience, and the relationship between Christian  mysticism and agency with  reference to politics and society. Students will examine a variety of mystical texts, teachings and figures from a variety of Christian traditions and will explore the continuities and discontinuities between pre-modern mystical texts understood in their historical and cultural context and contemporary interpretations from East and West. Students will explore the languages and images used within mystical texts and key doctrinal believes associated with Christian mysticism, such as apophatic anthropology and deification.

Christian Spirituality and the Arts

Online Asynchronous (10 weeks)

Dates: 8 May – 26 June 2023, Mondays

Time:  14.00 – 16.30

This module aims to enable students to understand and critically appraise the relationship between Christian spirituality and the arts (literature, music and visual arts, including film). This module will consider this relationship in the socio-historical and theological contexts in which it has developed, exploring differences and similarities between the Eastern and Western Christian perspectives. This module will enable students to appreciate the place of the arts in
Christian worship and the life of the church. Students will engage with theological ideas underpinning ekphrasis, images and icons, the relationship between literature and spirituality as academic disciplines, reflect critically on relationship between theoretical approaches to film, aesthetics, music and spiritual awareness, and examine contemporary phenomenological thinking on the ways in which the arts create access points to the transcendent and spiritual.

Foundations of Morality

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Dates: 19 September – 21 November
2022, Mondays 17.00 – 19.00

module is compulsory for students taking the MA in Ethics, as a foundational disciplinary module, but is accessible to other students who wish to explore ethics.

This module will introduce the students to different ways of thinking about moral matters and dilemmas within normative philosophical ethics. It will inquire  into such questions as ‘what makes an act right or wrong and the human being good or bad?’; ‘how should one live?’ (a Socratic question), ‘what is the good life? (an Aristotelian question), ‘how do we assess difficult moral situations?’; ‘where our principles come from?’; ‘why be moral?’, ‘do moral facts exist?’; ‘what does moral living require of us, both as human beings and within our specific social, professional and vocational roles?’. In searching for answers the students will consult moral theories which are usually grouped into three broad categories: deontological (concerned with acts that fulfil our duties), teleological (concerned with the consequences of our acts; utilitarianism is its best-known representative), and virtue-centred (focused upon the formation of good character with the virtues as its traits). The students will be helped to think in an informed and structured way about the meaning, role and patterns of moral reasoning and decision making within deontology, teleology, and virtue ethics.

The module will be interdisciplinary, engaging with neuroscience and artificial intelligence. These approaches to ethical thinking will be set in dialogue with other themes for investigation, including: major influences on ethical debate (relativism; theistic and non-theistic approaches;
science); conscience; human rights; law and morality

Catholic Social Thought and Practice

Online Synchronous (10 weeks)

Dates/Times: Tuesdays evenings, 4.30 pm – 6.30 pm; 9th May – 6th June 2023 and 3rd, 10th, 17th October, 7th and 14th November 2023

This course explores official documents of the Roman Catholic Church known as ‘Catholic Social Teaching’ as well as other sources, thinkers, and social movements known as ‘Catholic Social Thought’ (CST) in relation to economic, social, and political life. Much of CST has been explicitly addressed not only to Catholics but to people of all faiths and none, as it addresses issues of our common sociality and our common political structures.

Students are encouraged to connect this body of thought and its key themes to praxis in particular contexts.