Radical Discipleship and Catholic Community
Spring 2024
DESCRIPTION
What does Catholic social teaching look like embodied in our daily lives? This course, lead by Colin Miller (Ph.D., Duke, and Director of the Center for Catholic Social Thought) seeks to answer that question by offering a compelling vision of a Church deeply engaged with the reality of Jesus Christ by being deeply engaged with the liturgy, each other, our communities, and especially the poor. This course is for Catholics who sense they are being called beyond our culture of individualism and isolation into thicker bonds of communion with Christ’s Church, a deeper familiarity with its social tradition, and a more radical engagement in the works of mercy.
Topics include: seeing Christ in the poor; the Church as local community; personalism; incarnational ministry; social service as liturgical worship; being with the poor, the oppressed, and the sick; a Catholic approach to our culture; voluntary poverty; a Christian approach to money; caring for creation; a Christian view of history; the lives of the saints; and a host of related topics. We’ll ground all this in vignettes culled from the lives of the saints, and offer practical suggestions for how to live it out in your local scene. We will also try to foster a sense of belonging within the group, so that we become a bit of a community ourselves as we go along.
There are two options for class times each week, and each will cover the same material:
Mondays, 10:15-11:45am, March 18-May 27
Or
Thursdays, 5:30-7pm, March 21-May 30 (no class on Holy Thursday)
The format includes reading, lecture, and group discussion. Each week there will be two short readings to prepare (all readings will be provided), and class time will be spent in explanation and group discussion of these readings. The class will meet for 90 minutes each week for 10 weeks at the Church of the Assumption in downtown St. Paul. The course is free of charge and open to all and all.
Interested parties should register below at the bottom of this page, or contact Colin Miller at cmiller@assumptionsp.org with questions.