Yes, a course-retreat.
Less reading and more spiritual practice than a course (class),
more reading and exercising the mind than a retreat.
Soelle in Springtime:
Challenge and Wonder
April 19-June 3, 2023
online
online
Read and reflect in community on the work, thought, and spirituality of Dorothee Soelle (also spelled Sölle). Dorothee Soelle (1928-2003) was a German theologian, poet, peace activist, and Protestant Christian with Catholic, secular, humanist, and Jewish companions and allies; she was also a friend, teacher, spouse, mother, socialist, and from mid-life on, feminist.
Soelle wrote in an accessible manner --mostly in prose, sometimes in poems-- and not in the form of long academic treatises.
Her chosen topics, though, were challenging. We will visit a number of them:
- history, evil, and Christian political engagement
- silence, language, and poetry in the struggle to name God
- suffering and the vulnerability of God
- Jesus the risk-taker and the community of the friends of Jesus
- church as community of memory, resistance, and hope
- feminism, disobedience, and human wholeness
She was one of the first Christian theologians (and first German theologians) to address the reality of the Shoah (Holocaust) and how Christian thought and practice must change in a post-Shoah era and world.
- history, evil, and Christian political engagement
- silence, language, and poetry in the struggle to name God
- suffering and the vulnerability of God
- Jesus the risk-taker and the community of the friends of Jesus
- church as community of memory, resistance, and hope
- feminism, disobedience, and human wholeness
She was one of the first Christian theologians (and first German theologians) to address the reality of the Shoah (Holocaust) and how Christian thought and practice must change in a post-Shoah era and world.
What, when, where, how
* A seven-week online course-retreat from April 19 to June 3, 2023
* Reading, personal reflection, group conversation.
* At home, in your daily life: read and reflect in a way that suits your schedule.
* Two brief (1 or 2 paragraphs) online check-ins (in writing) per week.
*
Not for academic credit -- but a solid contribution to your spiritual,
intellectual, and community life and civic engagement, and to your work
in the arts, community organizations, religion, activism, and/or
academia.
* Readings are not lengthy (one and a half paperback books over seven weeks, plus short excerpts from Soelle's work on the course blog) but topics in Soelle's work are of the "oh, that's deep" sort. Expect gentle and friendly guidance and space for questioning and wonder, but also challenge and seriousness.
Soelle is the author of Political Theology; Revolutionary Patience; Suffering; Theology for Skeptics; Creative Disobedience; The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance; Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian; and many other works including books, essays, and poems. She also co-authored several books with friends such as her husband Fulbert Steffensky, her friend biblical scholar Luise Schottroff, and others.
* Readings are not lengthy (one and a half paperback books over seven weeks, plus short excerpts from Soelle's work on the course blog) but topics in Soelle's work are of the "oh, that's deep" sort. Expect gentle and friendly guidance and space for questioning and wonder, but also challenge and seriousness.
Soelle is the author of Political Theology; Revolutionary Patience; Suffering; Theology for Skeptics; Creative Disobedience; The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance; Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian; and many other works including books, essays, and poems. She also co-authored several books with friends such as her husband Fulbert Steffensky, her friend biblical scholar Luise Schottroff, and others.
How the course-retreat will work
* You will take up to three or four days to read and ponder and write brief responses (can be just a paragraph or two) on the course blog, any time. (That's it. No papers, no exams, no presentations.)
Online? How does that happen?
* As you saw above, two books are required. Otherwise, I offer further resources (quotations, images, reflection questions, guidelines for spiritual exercises, explanations and clarifications) online on a blog. The retreat blog will be open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) allows in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. Random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the blog comments.
* Soelle in Springtime is part course, part retreat.
* As such it will examine some of Soelle's writings with the intention of understanding them and her and the historical, social, political, and economic context in which Soelle lived and wrote.
* It will also invite us to reflect on some of the themes Soelle raises in our own contexts and lives, to ponder some of the questions she raises, slowly and prayerfully or meditatively, and to share some of the fruit of our reflection and prayer with other participants.
* There will be required readings every week, not too long, some from the two paperback required books** and some shorter ones posted on the course blog.
** Dorothee Soelle, Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian (Fortress, 1999)
Dorothee Soelle, Essential Writings, ed. Dianne Oliver (Orbis, 2006)
* I will post short readings, meditations, and questions for you to the course blog twice a week, usually on Wednesday and Saturday.* You will take up to three or four days to read and ponder and write brief responses (can be just a paragraph or two) on the course blog, any time. (That's it. No papers, no exams, no presentations.)
* While the main platform for the course will be our course blog, I will also offer a once a week live Zoom session for us to talk about our readings, reactions, and discoveries (spiritual, intellectual, and/or practical). This is optional but highly recommended. These weekly sessions, if you can make time for them, can keep you engaged and encouraged.
* As you saw above, two books are required. Otherwise, I offer further resources (quotations, images, reflection questions, guidelines for spiritual exercises, explanations and clarifications) online on a blog. The retreat blog will be open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) allows in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. Random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the blog comments.
Once you register for the course, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism for the blog. After that, the blog will always recognize you.
* We have conversations online in the comments section of each post on the blog. These are written conversations. I will post questions for your reflection and you will ponder them on your own, then reflect on them in community through your twice-weekly check-ins on the blog. You must check in twice a week, but your check-in may be as short as one or two thoughtful paragraphs. You may write more if you wish, but that's the minimum: one or two paragraphs, twice a week. No papers, no exams, no required academic jargon.
Registration and cost
Registration and payment take place via PayPal secure link (below), which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal.
--You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.
--If you prefer making a donation via Venmo, please write me.
--A discount rate is available for those in financial hardship.
--Likewise, the benefactor rate, for those who have the means, helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.
--If the discount fee is too high for you, please write me and ask about the possibility of a scholarship.
--Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.
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