Mission

Counseling & Ministry

(Students are expected to select at least two of the following and refer to them in monthly personal reflections):

Chodron, Pema. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
Frankel, Estelle. Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing and Inner Wholeness
Margaret Kornfeld. Cultivating Wholeness: A Guide to Care and Counseling in Faith Communities
Kokomon Clottey & Aeesha Ababio-Clottey. Beyond Fear: Twelve Spiritual Keys to Racial Healing
Stephanie Dowrick, Seeking the Sacred
Kenneth Boa. Augustine To Freud: What Theologians & Psychologists Tell Us About Human Nature (And Why It Matters)
Derald Wing Sue & David Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice
Duane R. Bidwell, Short Term Spiritual Guidance

Reading

First Year Reading List – Required

Huston Smith, The World’s Religions
Theodore Richards, Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism, and the Birth of a New Myth
Sharma, Arvind ed. Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from each Tradition
Eliade, Mircea ed. Essential Sacred Writings From Around the World

Dialogue

(Students are expected to read the first text [Speights] and at least one of the others and refer to them in monthly reflections)

Stephen Greenbaum, The Interfaith Alternative: Embracing Spiritual Diversity
S Wesley Ariarajah, Not Without My Neighbor: Issues in Interfaith Relations
Eboo, Patel, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America
Ted Falcon, Don MacKenzie, & Jamal Rahman, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith
Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur Magida, How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook

The following books are not required reading but students are expected to read at least one of them each month as they study the world’s religions:

Comparative Religion, Integral Spirituality, Mythology

Lotus Prayer Book: A Prayer for Every Heart, Satchitananda Ashram
Matthew Fox, One River, Many Wells
Wilber, Ken. Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Postmodern World
Ferrer, Jorge. Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality
James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience
Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4,000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Armstrong, Karen. The Case for God
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth, and Art
Prothero, Stephen. God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World
Bellah, Robert N. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age

Reading

Teasdale, Wayne. The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions.
Meyer, Marvin and Willis Barnstone eds. The Gnostic Bible
Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
Burkert, Walter. Ancient Mystery Cults
Jon Mundy, What is Mysticism?

Reading

Borg, Marcus. Meeting Jesus again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus & the Heart of Contemporary Faith.
Chilton, Bruce. Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography.
Crossan, John Dominic, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant
Neil Douglas-Klotz. Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus.
Eckhart, Meister. Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality in New Translation, ed. & trans. Matthew Fox
Fiorenza, Elizabeth Schussler. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins
Fox, Matthew. Original Blessing.
Hayes, John H. Introduction to the Bible
Harvey, Andrew. Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ.
Jonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity
Kung, Hans. The Catholic Church: A Short History
Moser, Mary Beth. Honoring Darkness: Exploring the Power of Black Madonnas in Italy.
Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels
Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited

Reading

Chittick, William C. The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi.
Chittick, William C. Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul: The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World.
Douglas-Klotz, Neil. The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish.
Khan, Hazrat Inayat. The Heart of Sufism.
Murata, Sachiko. The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines
Rauf, Imam Faisal Abdul. What’s Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West
Sells, Michael trans. Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations.
Shah, Idries The Way of the Sufi

Reading

Buber, Martin. I and Thou
Cooper, Rabbi David A. God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism
Gottlieb, Lynn. She Who Dwells Within: A Feminist Vision of a Renewed Judaism.
Matt, Daniel C. ed. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism.
Patai, Raphael. The Hebrew Goddess.
Scholem, Gershom. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism

Reading

Doniger, Wendy, The Hindus: An Alternative History
Aurobindo, Sri.. The Future Evolution of Man: The Divine Life upon Earth.
Chapple, Christopher K., and Mary Evelyn Tucker, eds. Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water.
Easwaran, Eknath, trans. The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living.
Griffiths, Bede. The Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu Way to God.
Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on Yoga
Mascaro, Juan, trans. The Upanishads
Satchidananda, Swami Sri. Integral Yoga: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Reading

Raven Kaldera. Dealing with Deities: Practical Polytheistic Theology
Galina Krasskova. Essays in Modern Heathenry
Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts
Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola. Dark Mother: African Origins and Godmothers
Black Elk, Nicholas, and John G. Neihardt. Black Elk Speaks
Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
Freeman, Mara. Kindling the Celtic Spirit
Grim., John A. ed. Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community
Harvey, Graham ed. Shamanism: A Reader
Lewis, I.M. Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism.
Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy
O’Donohue, John, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Stone, Merlin. When God was a Woman

Reading

Fowler, Jeaneane. Pathways to Immortality: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Religion of Taoism
Cleary, Thomas, trans. The Taoist I Ching.
Watson, Burton trans. Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings
Yang, Jwing-Ming. The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets for Health, Longevity & Enlightenment.
Yi Wu trans. The Book of Lao Tzu (The Tao Te Ching)

Reading

Bercholz, Samuel and Sherab Chodzin Kohn eds. The Buddha and His Teachings.
Evans-Wentz, W.Y. The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Meditation
Kohn, Michael H. trans. The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen
Macy, Joanna. World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal.
Palihawadana, Mahinda, and John Ross Carter trans. The Dhammapada
Sadakata, Akira. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins
Trungpa, Chogyam. Cutting through Spiritual Materialism
Suzuki, D.T. Zen Buddhism
Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Duncan Ryuken Williams. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds.
Thurman, Robert, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness

Reading