Online Offerings
Aware of the global and local challenges faith-based professionals face daily, the Boston University School of Theology (STH) strives to keep religious leaders well equipped for serving a broken but hopeful world. STH offers online opportunities for continuing your theological education in conversation with diverse students and world-class professors.
Current Offerings
Sustaining Spirits While Empires Crumble
A spirituality group that will examine how we are sustaining spirits in the midst of global turmoil. Gather each week to draw upon Black and Queer literature and reflect together in a renewing community. Starts in September 2023.
Over the course of 6 weeks, we’ll explore “How do we tend to ourselves and our communities while we survive apocalypse after apocalypse?” as individuals, collectives, and spiritual beings. Drawing from Black + Queer literature and imagination, Mutual aid + transformative justice tools, and the collective wisdom of the people in the room, we’ll examine how we’re sustaining our spirits while empires crumble. Theorists and thinkers guiding this journey include Octavia Butler, Larry Mitchell, Melissa Harris-Perry, Dean Spade, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and Mia Mingus.
Topics include: Introduction (Week 1), Sustaining Self in a Crooked Room: Connecting with Self while Empires Crumble (Week 2), Finding Community: Octavia Butler and Building Communities in an Apocalypse (Week 3), Sustaining Community: Larry Mitchell, Heavenly Blue, and Queer Imaginations of Mutual Aid (Week 4), Cultivating an Ecosystem of Care: Transformative Justice (Week 5), Sustaining Divine Interdependence: Systems Fall and We are Held/Holding (Week 6).
Starts in September 2023. Exact meeting dates coming soon. Registration is available here!
Mini-Courses
STH is offering online mini-courses addressing specific issues and empowering participants to walk away with an implementable plan or process. They include peer-learning opportunities and community support networks.
STH is partnering with the Center for Aging & Disability Education & Research (CADER) at the BU School of Social Work (SSW) to offer some additional programming for clergy on issues related to mental health awareness in an aging population.
Next Mini-Course will be offered in Summer 2023.
Past Offerings
Let us know if you would like to see any of these offered again!
Speaking of Life because of Death
Prayer Practices: Time-Honored Refreshers for your Spiritual Life
Sirviendo a Indigenas En Nuestra Comunidad (Spanish language)
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
Spirituality Groups
STH is gathering spirituality groups to create community around some spiritual explorations from contemporary fiction and film, to today’s wisdom figures, to traditional practices worthy of reviving.
Sustaining Spirits While Empires Crumble is available for registration. See above!
Past Offerings
Let us know if you would like to see any of these offered again!
Darn It All: A Mending Spirituality Reflection Group for Helping Professionals
Theology of Culture, Ethics of the Other, and Video Games
Responses to Brokenness
Prayer Reflecting on Suffering, Death, and Resurrection in Christian Visual Art
Prayer Practices: Reflecting with Mary Oliver
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
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