"HUMANITY'S SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION"


Instructor:
Harold Rosen – Master's Degrees in Religion, Philosophy & Education

To Register:
contact Iris Keen (irisk@lsrs.ca)or 604-530-3020.

Course Schedule:

8 Wednesday mornings, 9:30 to 11:30am – May 4 to June 22, 2011

Location:

Langley Seniors Resource Center – 20605 51B Avenue, Langley

Course Description:

How have humanity's higher capacities developed during our time on earth? What figures and forces have generated and fostered our unfolding powers? Why has our spiritual evolution been conceived with such stunning variety across the ages? Three major Traditions have offered helpful and intriguing approaches to these questions – Religion, Spiritual Wisdom, and Science. The contents of these Traditions have been viewed as parallel, as convergent, and as divergent. Today, however, these three Traditions seem to be dovetailing. In this interdisciplinary course, Religion will be interpreted as revelatory teachings and practices; Spiritual Wisdom as esoteric or hidden insights and techniques; and Science as ever more refined methods of observation, deduction and control. Participants will be invited to examine and discuss the main outlines of all three Traditions, and to explore some possibilities of their integration.

Topics & Themes:
1 – May 4 – Introduction to the 3 Traditions on Human Evolution:
          Religion, Spiritual Wisdom & Science
2 – May 11 – Religions of the East on Human Evolution:
          Hindu, Buddhist & Ancient Chinese Perspectives
3 – May 18 – Religions of the Middle East & West on Human Evolution:
          Jewish, Christian, Islamic & Baha'i Perspectives
4 – May 25 – Spiritual Wisdom Before 1500:
          From Hermetic Mysteries to Medieval Alchemy
5 – June 1 – Modern Spiritual Wisdom:
          From Renaissance Mysticism to Contemporary New Age Thought
6 – June 8 – Science Before the European Renaissance:
          From Cosmic Wonder to Humanistic Vision
7 – June 15 – Modern Science & Human Development:
Natural Evolution, Social Evolution & Conscious Evolution
8 – June 22 – Retrospect & Prospect on the 3 Traditions:
          Are There Ways of Integrating Religion, Spirituality & Science?