Contemplation and Action
Theo 60-240
Summer 2006
Professor Matthew Ashley
Course Meetings: 10:40 - 1:00 pm, Monday - Friday, July 10 - 28, in 203 DeBartolo
Office Hours: 2:00 - 3:00 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 442 Malloy (or, if I’m not there, look for me in 123 Malloy). Or by appointment: [631-7077; ashley.2@nd.edu]
Course Description:
This course explores the interactions between Christian spirituality and systematic theology, with a focus on the relationship between prayer and action in a Christian's spiritual life. The tendency in the Christian tradition has been to see prayer as superior to action, since it is the focal point in this life of the union with God that is our destiny in the next. However, there have been innovative attempts in the history of the tradition to break down overly rigid barriers between these two essential components of the Christian life. We begin in Greek thought, with the distinction between theoria and praxis. We then consider how this conceptual pair was taken over in the history of Christian spirituality in some classic understandings of the relationship between the vita contemplativa and the vita activa. Figures in this section will include Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart and Catherine of Sienna. This part of the course will culminate in the sixteenth-century spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola. Then we will look at three modern figures who have attempted to interrelate contemplation and action: Thomas Merton, Dorothee Soelle, and Jon Sobrino.
Texts:
The following texts should be available (eventually) in the bookstore and are on reserve:
(1) Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works, edited by George Ganss, SJ (Paulist Press, 1991)
(2) Catherine of Sienna: The Dialogue, translated and edited, Suzanne Noffke, OP (Mahwah: N.J.: Paulist Press, Press, 1980)
(3) Dorothee Soelle, The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance (Fortress, 2001)
(4) Susan Racoczy, Great Mystics & Social Justice: Walking on the Two Feet of Love (Paulist, 2006)
(5) Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999)
Other readings listed in the syllabus will be available on “ereserves.”
Requirements:
A. Short essays (50%)
A short (one to two page) response to the readings will be due at the beginning of each class. These papers will be in response to specific questions on the readings that I will distribute on the first day of class. The two lowest grades from these papers will be dropped when computing the final average.
B. Class Participation (20%)
All students should come to class prepared to discuss the readings. Discussion will be based in part on the daily short papers.
C. Final (30%)
A final take home will be distributed on July 27, due on the following day.
|
Date |
Topic |
Readings |
|
|
Week One |
Patristic and Medieval Reflections |
|
|
|
July 10 |
The Sources: Greek Philosophical Concepts and Biblical Materials |
• Nicholas Lobkowicz, Theory and Practice: A History of a Concept from Aristotle to Marx (Notre Dame, 1967), 3-58 (available on e-reserves); • Gen 29:15-24;Mt 9:18-25, Mk 14:3-8, 16:9; Lk 7:36-8:2, 9:51-11:13; Jn 11:1-12:8, 21:15-25 • Rakoczy , chapters 1& 2 |
|
|
July 11 |
Augustine of Hippo |
• Sermons 103 and 104; from The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (New City Press, 1990- ), vol III, part 5: 76-87 • Tractate 124: On John 21:19-25, from Tractates on the Gospel of John, translated by John W. Rettig. (Catholic University Press, 1988), vol. 5, 82-94. • City of God, XIX.19 |
|
|
July 12 |
Bernard of Clairvaux
|
• Sermon 50 on the Song of Songs, in Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works, trans. G.R. Evans (Paulist Press, 1987), 241-245. • Sermons 3 and 5 on the Assumption, from St. Bernard’s Sermons on the Blessed Virgin Mary, trans. by a Priest of Mount Melleray (Devon, EN: Augustine Publishing, 1984), 184-193, 206-228. |
|
|
July 13 |
Thomas Aquinas
|
Summa Theologiae II.II: Q 179, Q 180.1-5, 8; QQ 181, 182 |
|
|
July 14 |
Meister Eckhart
|
• Sermon 2, from Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense, trans. with introductions by Edmund Celledge, O.S.A., and Bernard McGinn (Paulist, 1981), 177-181, • Sermon 86, from Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher, ed. Bernard McGinn (Paulist, 1986), 338-345. |
|
|
Week Two |
Modern Attempts at Synthesis |
|
|
|
July 17 |
Catherine of Sienna |
• Catherine
of Sienna: The Dialogue: pp. 25-47, 64-160, 277-326 • Rakoczy, chapter 3 |
|
|
July 18 |
Ignatius I
|
• The
Spiritual Exercises, nos. 1-23, 45-55, 91-109, 135-57, 165-189,
230-37, 313-370 • John
O’Malley, “Some Distinctive
Characteristics of Jesuit Spirituality in the
Sixteenth Century” (e-reserves) • Rakoczy, chapter 4 |
|
|
July 19 |
Ignatius II
|
selections from The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, in Ganss reader: pp. 283-321; and selected letters: 332-38, 341-56. |
|
|
July 20 |
Jon Sobrino
|
• “The Christ of the Ignatian Exercises,” from Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach, translated by John Drury (Orbis, 1978), 396-424 • “Spirituality and the Following of Jesus” from Mysterium Liberationis: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology, ed. Jon Sobrino & Ignacio Ellacuría (Orbis, 1994), 677-702. |
|
|
July 21 |
Jon Sobrino
|
• Christ the Liberator: A View from the Victims (Orbis, 2001), pp. 17-22, 35-53, 66-78 • Rakoczy, chapters 9 & 10 |
|
|
Week Three |
|
||
|
July 24 |
Merton
|
• Contemplation in a World of Action, pp. 28-83, 141-161, 200-266 • Rakoczy, chapter 7
|
|
|
July 25 |
Soelle |
The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance | |
|
July 26 |
Soelle |
The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance |
|
|
July 27 |
Exam Day |
Pick up Exam
and Work on it
|
|
|
July 28 |
conclusions |
|