SPIRITUAL FOUNDATIONS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
WS 613 Fall, 2014 (FINAL)
Instructor: Rev. Susan Fowler, PhD
email: susan.fowler@aya.yale.edu
Online
Phone: (203) 868-9829
Course Description
What does the Lord require of you but to do justice,
and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
This prescription sums up life in the Spirit: A faithful disposition of heart, a practice of right
relating, and an orientation toward the Holy One. In this context, justice and compassion are
cornerstones of the spiritual life and the foundations of social transformation.
As spiritual values, these are understood in the context of covenants of mutuality, inclusion
and egalitarianism that foster right ordering of relationships. As transformative practices, they
encompass a dialectical relationship between individuals and society, within which is an
awareness of ways in which the dominant culture could be reordered to reflect life-enhancing
values and just social systems.
In this course, we will explore how these virtues cooperate in an engaged spirituality – i.e.
grounded in the Holy One and attentive to the needs of a suffering world – in both personal and
political contexts by 1) contemplating how they are embodied and operative in our own spiritual
lives, and 2) analyzing a situation of oppression and injustice with a critical and compassionate
eye, and proposing solutions which are transformative, life-giving and just.
Learning goals. In this framework, you will:
1. Acquire knowledge of the theological, philosophical and spiritual understandings of justice
and compassion in a variety of secular and religious traditions, and explore how these are
operative in the frameworks of common course readings and films, case studies and your
personal spirituality.
2. Learn to identify and critically analyze a situation of oppression and injustice, identify
clues to the common elements that arise from a core of justice, compassion and spiritual
groundedness, and propose remedies for those situations in ways that are life giving and
transformative.
3. Explore how your personal spirituality impacts your way of being in the world in the
personal and communal arenas.
Required Texts
1. Ellsberg, Robert ed. Modern Spiritual Masters: Writings on Contemplation and
Compassion. New York, NY: Orbis Books 2008
2. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life
New York, NY: Little Brown and Company. 2001
3. O’Connell, Maureen. Compassion: Loving our Neighbor in an Age of Globalization.
New York, NY: Orbis. 2009
4. Kristof, Nicolas and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky. NY Random House. 2009
5. Selected articles listed on Blackboard
Recommended: Farley, Margaret. Compassionate Respect. NY/NJ. Paulist Press. 2002
Assessment Expectations:
Weekly Discussion Board assignments due on Sunday*. Worth 65% of final grade
Social Analysis Paper due December 21. worth 35% of grade.
*Assignment due dates:
All modules begin on a Sunday and end the following Sunday with the submission of your
discussion board response. So for example, Module 2 begins on Sep 7; your DBd response for
that week is due Sep 14. Module 3 begins on Sep 14; your DBd response for that week is due
Sep 21. Etc. The exception is module 1, which begins on Sep 2 and ends on Sep 6. Your DBd
response is still due on Sun Sep 7.
Attendance Policy
This course is asynchronous – i.e. you do not have to log on at a particular time to do
assignments, although you do have a firm submission date for assignments (see above). If you
are unable to submit on time, please communicate that to me.
Office hours: by appointment, either in person or by telephone
A Note About Plagiarism
In all assignments it is assumed that what is submitted is the student’s own original work.
Plagiarism is strictly forbidden. As described in the Hartford Seminary General Guidelines for a
Research Paper, plagiarism occurs when students “submit another person’s work, lift paragraphs,
sentences, or even a choice phrase from another writer, or make use of another person’s ideas
(even if the student puts these ideas in his/her own words) without acknowledging the source.”
A related kind of dishonesty is to resubmit a paper which was done for a different course,
even if it is the student’s own work. These practices are not permitted at Hartford Seminary.
They will be reported to the Dean’s Office and may result in disciplinary action. If a paper is
found to contain plagiarism, the minimum penalty will be failing that assignment, with no
opportunity to rewrite.
WS 613 COURSE SYLLABUS FALL 2014
PART I: HOW SHALL WE LIVE?
The Call to Contemplation; the Invitation to Compassion; the Mandate of Justice
Sep 2 Grounding the Conversation: the Call to Contemplation
Reading: Ellsberg, Ch. 1 Thomas Merton: Contemplation and Compassion
Rothberg, Donald. “Awakening for All Beings: Buddhism and Social
Transformation” (PDF)
Begin daily practice: A Buddhist Meditation on Loving Kindness (PDF)
Or Tara Brach “Sacred Pause”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-yF9EMkE88
Sep 8
The Invitation to Compassion: Compassion as Disposition
Exercise: “How Self-compassionate are you?” (PDF)
Readings: Dalai Lama, An Open Heart, Ch. 1- 12
Ellsberg, Ch.11: Henri Nouwen: A Wounded Healer
Nabe, Ruqaiyah “Sowing Seeds of Love, Reaping Blossoms of
Compassion”. Presence Magazine. Vol.20 #2, June 2014 (PDF)
View: Joan Halifax, “Compassion and the True Meaning of Empathy”
http://www.ted.com/talks/joan.halifax
Sep 15, 22 Philosophies and Theologies of Compassion
Readings: O’Connell, Ch.2 and 3
Dalai Lama, Ethics of Compassion (PDF)
Sep 29 The Road to Jericho: Justice, power and the dominant paradigm
Readings: O’Connell, Ch.1;
Russell, Letty. Justice and Social Change (PDF)
Dorr, Structural Injustice (PDF)
Loomer, B. Two Conceptions of Power (PDF)
Ellsberg, Ch. 5 Oscar Romero: Voice of the Voiceless
PART II COMPASSION AND JUSTICE AS PRAXIS
Oct 6 Compassion as Interruption
Reading: O’Connell, Ch 5.
Oct 13 Case Study: Hurricane Katrina
Readings: Sheri Fink, “The Deadly Choices at Memorial” (PDF)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30doctors.html/
Farley, M. Compassionate Respect (recommended)
Oct 20 After Katrina: Political Compassion in Social Disasters
Reading: O’Connell Ch.6
Oct 27, Nov 3 Holding up Half the Sky
Reading: Kristof and Wudunn Half the Sky
Viewing: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/half-the-sky
PART III TRANSFORMATION
Nov 10 Radical Hospitality
Readings: Jn 10: 38-42
Ellsberg, Ch. 2 Mother Teresa: Serving Jesus in his Distressed Disguise;
Ch. 7 Howard Thurman: Good News for the Disinherited;
Ch. 12 Dorothy Day: A New Kind of Holiness
Fowler: Radical Hospitality (PDF)
Nov 17 Forgiveness, reconciliation and restorative justice
Readings: Fetzer institute: “When it’s hard to forgive” (PDF)
Viewing: Religious leaders speaking about justice, forgiveness and reconciliation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xFcs0oR8pg
After viewing this particular clip, click on Consider forgiveness interviews with
additional scholars to access more views
Nov 24 no class: seminary closed for recess.
Dec 1 Spirituality and Balance: the Path to Peace
Reading: May, G. From Cruelty to Compassion (PDF)
Ellsberg, Ch.3 Gandhi
Additional readings TBA
Dec 8 Transforming the Jericho Road: a reprise of the Good Samaritan
Reading: O’Connell, Ch.7
Dec 21: final paper due