MA in Applied Christian Spirituality
Awarding Body: National University of Ireland (NUI)
Duration: One year
Delivery: Weekly attendance Thursdays
Duration
A one–year full–time programme, being the second year, normally, of a two–year programme that leads to an MA in Spirituality.
Access, Transfer and Progression Routes
Ordinarily, only applicants who have obtained second class honours in the Higher Diploma in Applied Spirituality at the Milltown Institute will be admitted. An upper honours mark in both concluding interviews of the Higher Diploma will be required. Applications should be received by September 13th 2008.
Aims of the programme
The MA in Applied Christian Spirituality builds on what has already been learnt in the Higher Diploma in Applied Christian Spirituality, by enabling candidates to acquire the practical and research skills necessary to understand, teach, and accompany others in a variety of contexts. Candidates are trained to approach current issues in spirituality contextually and in a theologically informed way. This MA sets out to provide candidates with the theoretical knowledge and skills necessary to become practitioner researchers of spirituality in settings of social care and wherever spiritual issues are addressed.
The general aims of the programme are as follows:
• to train participants to be practitioner researchers of spirituality in a variety of public contexts and social settings;
• to build on the self-reflective skills already acquired in the Higher Diploma;
• to further develop the capacity of candidates to be spiritual sources of social transformation
• to train participants further in the skills and knowledge necessary to transfer theologically informed spiritual practices to daily life situations;
• to develop further participants' knowledge of the western Judeo-Christian tradition.
Awarding Body: National University of Ireland
Mode of Delivery
Candidates will be enabled to achieve the learning outcomes through the following teaching and learning methodologies: lectures; guided reading; book reviews; research papers; integration journal; integration triads; counseling journal; conferences; small and large group discussion and sharing; peer presentations, and the research project.
Modes of Assessment
Assessment procedures will provide for a flexible, learner-centred framework incorporating the forms outlined below, quality assurance, and a coherent range of pathways through the Programme. Assessment modes include: book report essay or class presentation (individual or group); self- evaluation of skills learning; research project of 15,000 words; final oral interview.
Some previous research undertaken in the programme
• Welcoming the Stranger: Exploration of the Spirituality of the Refugee
• Spirituality and Intellectual Disability: A Discussion on the Interrelationship in the Movements of Faith and Light and L’Arche
• Sexual Love as Spiritual Experience: A Case Study of the Role of Kukati (the bedroom) in Zambian traditional marriages
• The Living Word: An Exploration of the Spirituality of Presenting Scripture in Theatrical Format
• An Exploration of the Theme of the Wounded Healer in the Context of Bereavement Following Suicide
• The Impact of the Ecological Movement on Spirituality Today: Case Study on those involved in Rossinver Organic Centre
• Spirit and Soul in Two Business Schools
Modules in the Programme
The Programme begins with a one-week summer school, which focuses on the study of research methodologies and spirituality. The programme is full-time, although candidates fulfill their class requirements by attending one day per week (Thursdays at present). The one day full-time schedule per week facilitates day release attendance and is divided into two distinct sections. The morning lectures present theoretical course content while most of the afternoon sessions are designed to introduce and develop the theory and praxis of skills. A number of afternoons are reserved for the self-implicating work of group integration of the different elements of the programme. Ten sessions of counseling are part of the requirement for this year. These are held outside the hours of scheduled class time, as are a number of meetings in triads. These counselling sessions are the subject of a personal process journal, while the work in triads provides material for the personal integration journal. A quarter of the credits for the year are allotted for conceiving, designing, carrying out and writing up a research project in spirituality. The work on this project is also material for the personal integration journal.
The individual modules are as follows:
• SUMMER SCHOOL
Research Methods in Spirituality
• FOUNDATIONS
Contemplative Psychology
Spirituality, Social Concern & Gender
12th - 14th Century Spiritualities
16th - 17th Century Spiritualities
• APPLICATIONS
Prayer Forms
Group Spiritual Mentoring
• PERSONAL PROCESS
Counselling
Programme Integration
• RESEARCH PROJECT
Research Skills
Research Colloquium
Research Project
Core Teaching Staff
Una Agnew ssl, BA, HDipEd, MASpir, PhD, Associate Professor; Emerita
James Corkery, sj, BSocSc, BPhil, HDE, STD, Associate Professor
Anne Marie Dixon, osu, BATh, HDipEd, MEd, PGDipCouns/Psychotherapy, MIACP, MIAHIP, Reg ICP Psychotherapist,
Bernadette Flanagan, pbvm, BATh, HDipEd, MA, PhD, Associate Professor
John Finnegan, sdb, BA, PedLic, DD, Associate Professor
Brian Grogan, sj, BA, LicPhil, HDipEd, STL, PhD, Associate Professor, Emeritus
Michael O’Sullivan, sj, BSocSc, Bac. Phil, BD, MTh, STL, PhD, Senior Lecturer; Programme Director
Denis Robinson, cssp, BD, Dip.Dev.Studies, MA, PhD, Head of Department
Grants and Tax Relief
This programme is covered by the Higher Education Grants Scheme, and information regarding application procedures, eligibility and related matters may be obtained from the student’s Local Authority (or of the local Education and Library Board for students from Northern Ireland). This programme is eligible for tax relief under Section 473A, Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 by the Department of Education and Science.Programme Director
Dr. Michael O’Sullivan has been a member of the Faculty of Theology and Spirituality at Milltown Institute since 1986 and is an elected member of the Governing Board of the
International Society of Scholars for the Study of Christian Spirituality. He has contributed to a number of books and is the author of over 70 articles on issues of Christian faith and social and gender justice. His research interests include the development of grounds for going beyond traditional binary dualism concerning gender and the derivation of corresponding terminology and concepts; the need to make the situation of violence against women a priority in doing theology; the elaboration of the potential for the development of spirituality as an academic discipline in the writings of Bernard Lonergan; and the articulation of how the promotion of social justice is a central and integral concern in authentic Christian spirituality. He has extensive experience living and working among economically disadvantaged people in Ireland, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. He is a Jesuit priest.