A Fall Course on Sophiology

This will be pretty experiential and experimental as well as intellectually engaging. The course will incorporate readings from the great sophiologists, including, but not limited to, Hildegard of Bingen and Francis of Assisi, Boehme, Solovyov, Bulgakov, Teilhard de Chardin, and others. but it will also include dreamwork and experiences in Nature as well as in the arts. The course will be held in real time on Saturdays, starting at 1:00 pm Eastern Time (US) and running 1 1/2 to 2 hours a session for a total of eight weeks. It will start on September 21st. Course fee: $150

Those interested in enrolling can just shoot me an email and I will let you know what to do from there.

A Course on Christian Romanticism

I am happy to announce that I will be offering an online course on Christian Romanticism beginning Saturday, July 13, 2024 and running for the following eight weeks. The course will meet in real time from 1-2:30/3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (US).

The course will cover a variety of topics and writers (tentative schedule below) in order to not only explore the cultural and spiritual history and phenomena of Christian Romanticism (conceived very broadly) but to see how Christian Romanticism (which is deeply related to Sophiology) is relevant to our own cultural moment.

The cost of the course is $150 (US).

If you are interested in enrolling, reach out to me at director@thecenterforsophiologicalstudies.com

Tentative Schedule

Week One: Celtic and Medieval Christianity

Week Two: Jacob Boehme’s The Way to Christ

Week Three: Henry Vaughan and Thomas Traherne

Week Four: William Blake

Week Five: Novalis’s Hymns to the Night

Week Six: Vladimir Solovyov’s The Meaning of Love

Week Seven: Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies

Week Eight: Eleanor Farjeon’s Trees

Week Nine: Novalis’s Christendom or Europe?

The Hedge School: The Rosicrucian Documents of the 17th Century (online course)

In this course we will cover the source of “the Rosicrucian furor” that so gripped the intellectual and theological imagination of the 17th century. The documents in question—Fama Fraternitatis (1614), Confessio Fraternitatis (1615), and The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616)—relate a fascinating mythos concerning this mysterious fraternity (if it was one), and has much to say about the theosophical. We will also look at some of the related figures of the movement—Robert Fludd, Thomas and Henry Vaughan, Michael Maier, and Jacob Boehme—as well as the reception of these documents through history. In my scholarly career, I have written extensively about this movement in Literature and the Encounter with God in Post-Reformation England, The Submerged Reality, The Heavenly Kingdom, not to mention my edition of The Chymical Wedding. The course will be livestreamed only for participants and will be held on five consecutive Fridays starting 20 October 2023 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time (US). Cost is $100 and can be paid by check or via Venmo @Michael-Martin-295. Contact me at director@thecenterforsophiologicalstudies.com if you have more questions. Ex Deo Nascimur; In Christo Morimur; Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus.