Workshops and Spirituality Groups

Growth Mindset to Shake the Status Quo

Join us as we discover together the momentum you can gain just by changing your mindset. Cultivating a growth mindset in yourself and your congregation encourages you to face new challenges as your context changes; persevere when setbacks happen; learn skills to motivate the efforts of leadership; encourage listening to both positive and negative feedback instead of getting defensive; and learn from other churches and organizations instead of seeing them as threats.

Date: Thursdays, May 13, 20th, and 27th, noon-1pm EDT.

Cost: $50 for the non-CEU version, $90 for the CEU version. A $10 discount will be applied for alumni/ae of Boston University School of Theology.

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Cultivating Interfaith Friendships on Campus

Details TBA

Ministering to Indigenous Communities

Details TBA

Spiritual Reflection Groups

Reflecting with Howard Thurman 

Using some of the Thurman collection in Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center we will reflect the wisdom on Howard Thurman for our own time. Participants will be listening to Thurman’s talks rather than reading them.

Facilitator: Rev. Dr. Andrew Kimble

Dates: Tuesdays: May 18th, 25th, June 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd 5:30pm-6:30pm EDT.

Cost: $50. A $10 discount will be applied for alumni/ae of Boston University School of Theology.

Register Here

Spring 2021 

Workshops

Practicing Sabbath in the Time of Pandemic

Spirituality Groups

Spirituality in Latinx Films

With CADER

Memory Sunday webinar: Memory Sunday New England is a faith-based collaboration made up of leaders at the local, city, and state levels working in partnership with African American congregations to raise awareness about memory loss, aging and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Potential Future Offerings

Workshops

Beyond LGBT-Acceptance: toward Inclusion and Equity

Creating New Meaning-Making Activities/Rituals

A Theological Look at Violence and Fear

Spirituality Groups

African American Poetry (reading selections from Kevin Young’s new anthology)

Centering Prayer Theory and Practice

Spirituality in the Comic Book World

Let us know if you would like to see any of these offered again! Email us at sthcooll@bu.edu

Prayer Practices: Time-Honored Refreshers for your Spiritual Life

Practical Hope

Reflecting with Howard Thurman

Remote Ministry to Elders during Advent

Church Mission in Uncertainty and Adversity

Leading Community Lament

Discerning Vocation in Changing Times

Asset Mapping to Develop Your Community – an ABCD Approach

Embodying the Spirit of Afrofuturism

Reflecting on the Poetry of Joy Harjo

A Spirituality of Suffering as Depicted in African-American Films

Conflict Transformation Close to Home: How to Have Hard Conversations Across Ideological Differences 

Moving Upstream: Spiritual Care Plans as a Tool for Proactive Pastoral Care

Registration dates

Fall semester: May 20 – August 1

Spring semester: November 15 – December 15

Courses

Select School of Theology courses are open to Continuing Scholars with the permission of the professor. Courses not available to Continuing-scholar or BU Evergreen students are: first-year Intro courses for MDiv and MTS students (Intro to Christian Traditions, Christianity Engaging Modernity, Intro to New Testament, Hebrew Bible, Spiritual Companioning Groups, and First-Year Formation), contextual education courses, doctoral seminars, directed studies, and travel seminars. Please see a list of Spring 2021 course offerings here.
Please note that in Spring 2021, almost all STH courses will be offered with both residential and remote participation options. However, continuing scholars may only take courses as remote participants in our efforts to de-densify classroom spaces to create safe on-campus conditions for learning. We would be happy to have you as a remote learner in the fall though!

Expectations

Continuing scholars attend their chosen course regularly, do all course reading, complete any additional requirements stipulated by the professor, and participate in classroom activities and discussions. The extent to which Continuing Scholars take exams or hand in assignments is left to the discretion of the professor. At the end of the semester, Continuing Scholars submit a 1,500-word essay to the Office of Student and Community Life on one aspect of the course that is particularly relevant to their own life and work. Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) will only be granted when the essay is received.

Courses may not be joined after the second full week that the class has met. Language courses may be taken by Continuing Scholars, but only with the expectation that all course requirements will be fulfilled. Language courses require a whole academic year commitment.

Ordination Credit

Individuals seeking to take a course to meet United Methodist ordination requirements (specifically, the 9 courses that comprise the UMC Basic Graduate Theological Studies (BGTS) courses – Old Testament, New Testament, theology, church history, mission, worship/liturgy, evangelism, UM Polity, and UM history and doctrine – may not do so through the Continuing Scholar program, but must instead take the course as a “special student” so that the work completed may appear on an academic transcript with a grade. The same is true for students in other denominations or traditions who are taking a course to meet ordination requirements. All of the required work for the course must be completed as with a regular seminary course. The application for admission as a special student is streamlined. Please contact the Admissions Office at sthadmis@bu.edu. For persons pursuing ordination and taking courses required for UMC, UCC, Episcopal, or UU ordination, STH is able to provide 70% tuition scholarships, thereby greatly reducing the total cost of each four-credit course. UMC Students should also check into the possibility of receiving a United Methodist GBHEM grant for part-time study leading to ordination here. That grant, if received, would be applied to the total original tuition charge.

Prerequisites

This program is available by application only to those who show sufficient preparation and interest to carry out the work of the class. Continuing Scholars must have a previously earned masters degree in theology or its equivalent.

Credits

Continuing scholars can earn up to three CEU’s per course for their regular participation. Academic credit may not be gained, earned, or accrued. Courses taken as a Continuing Scholar cannot be applied to a degree program and do not appear on a BU transcript. At the satisfactory completion of all program requirements for that course, Continuing Scholars receive a certificate of completion attesting to the CEUs they have earned. The Continuing Scholar program is an invitation to a community of learning, not a degree program.

Application

Interested pastors, educators, counselors, chaplains, denominational staff, and other religious leaders are invited to apply. Students who were not in good academic or financial standing with Boston University School of Theology, who are currently on leave of absence from the school, who have withdrawn themselves, or who have been withdrawn by the School of Theology in prior semesters are not eligible without approval from the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.

If you would like to apply to the Continuing Scholar program, please fill out the application and email it to the program administrator Valentina Pride.

Continuing Scholar Application Form

The Anna Howard Shaw Center at Boston University School of Theology promotes structures and practices that empower women and honor diversity. The Center is named after the Reverend Doctor Anna Howard Shaw, a Methodist minister, medical doctor, and suffragist.

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The Center for Practical Theology seeks to provide a bridge between the scholarly resources, questions, and insights of a university-based theological seminary and the wisdom, questions, and traditions of communities of faith. In doing so, the Center provides an infrastructure for sustaining, deepening, and expanding important relationships and connections between Boston University School of Theology and local congregations, denominational offices, and religious centers so that they may be more integrally incorporated into student learning and faculty teaching and research.

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The Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the Boston University School of Theology explores the most important development in Christianity during the early twenty-first century: the shift of Christianity’s demographic center to the southern hemisphere. Whereas in the year 1900, over 70% of the world’s Christians were of European background, by the year 2000 the ethnically European component of the world church had shrunk to less than one-third of the total number of Christians. To explore the meaning and implications of this massive cultural shift is one of the most challenging tasks of theological education and scholarship today.

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Eli Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies coordinates and supports all Judaic studies programs at Boston University and offers educational events open to the general public.

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History

For almost 20 years, the School of Theology has been building strength in ecological justice, beginning with courses and projects, sustainable practices, curriculum tracks, and LEEDS-certified renovations. In 2017, the School joined the second cohort of theological schools in the Green Seminary Initiative’s certification process. As part of that certification process, Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore gathered a team of faculty, staff, and students. The School undertook a self-audit of ongoing ecological justice efforts in education, buildings and maintenance, community life, liturgy and worship, and public leadership. The School began discussing the possibility of launching a program centered on ecological justice, which in 2018 was aptly named the “Faith and Ecological Justice Program”.

The Certificate in Faith and Ecological Justice signifies a student’s concentrated development of research and/or practical competencies in ecotheology, environmental ethics, and ecologically-informed spirituality and practices. The goal of the certificate is to prepare students for meaningful and effective work in faith-based environmental initiatives and to explore the rich depth of religious resources for such work. Courses in theology and ethics introduce students to the ways that religious traditions have portrayed human relations to the natural world as well as how they have responded to environmental challenges. Travel seminars and colloquia offer students training in ecologically-informed spiritual practices and activism. Successful completion of the program consists of passing three approved courses in the subject area and completing three one-credit colloquia. The certificate can be earned in conjunction with degree program requirements or as a stand-alone certificate. If a student wants to substitute other courses including those from one of the other schools in the Boston Theological Institute, they will need to consult with Dr. Rebecca Copeland, Assistant Professor of Theology, and receive approval by petition to the academic dean. Students wanting more information about the Faith and Ecological certificate or the value of such certification may contact Dr. Copeland.

CURA is a center for research, publication, and education on one of the most strategic questions in the contemporary world: How does culture (in the sense of beliefs, values, and lifestyles) affect economic and political developments worldwide? Since, in most of the world, religion is at the core of culture, CURA has paid special attention to the role of religion in world affairs. While CURA’s agenda is of obvious academic interest, it touches increasingly on practical policy concerns. Thus CURA has sought to communicate its findings to the government, the business community, and the media.

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Each year the Theology & the Arts Program sponsors art and religion-related competition. Previous competitions include poetry, hymn-writing, and photography. 

The Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute at Boston University was established through a generous endowment by Albert V. and Jessie Boyd Danielsen to promote the benefits of a close collaboration between psychology and religion to alleviate human suffering and enhance human growth.

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