Meaning Making Across Traditions
HDS 2934
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This course can serve as a companion class for students enrolled in Field Education to meet their MDiv degree requirements and it is also open to other students (at all Harvard schools) who wish to learn more about reflection in relation to their particular work/vocational contexts. Students not enrolled in Field Ed should petition to join by emailing the instructor directly (msanford@hds.harvard.edu) with their reasons for wanting to enroll. Meaning Making Across Traditions explores the various ways that members of religious, spiritual, philosophical, and wisdom traditions place inherited resources (e.g. scriptures, commentaries, stories, songs, practices, etc.) in dynamic conversation with lived experiences to generate new insights, practices, and ways of being. The course focuses on four primary questions:
What wisdom can our inherited traditions offer to our present situation?
How does our lived experience illuminate the resources we have inherited in new ways?
How do we engage both sources (inherited and experiential) in a deliberate, reflective, and mutually enriching dialogue that transforms our being and doing in the world?
How might we facilitate this kind of reflection for and with others within our communities and circles of care?
This course takes a deliberately multi-religious and multi-tradition approach, exploring Christian, Buddhist, philosophic, and other ways of seeking meaning in the events of our lives. The traditions explored will reflect the composition of the students enrolled the course each year. The course uses the case study method as a starting place for reflection; explores the student’s inherited reflection methods and methodologies; guides students in the process of composing their own reflections in relation to the lived experiences; and provides an overview of theories and practices for facilitating reflection with others. As such, the course blends theory/theology with personal practice and interpersonal/community engagement.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
