A Spirited Life in a Secular Age
With Sam Keen
October 14-15, 2011
Friday 7:30-9:30 PM
Saturday 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
Cost:
Public
Friday Only: $40
Saturday Only: $125
Entire Event: $150
*CIL Members
Friday: $30
Saturday: $110
All events: $135
A Spirited Life in a Secular Age
from Sam Keen
Paul Tillich taught me that there are three questions any philosophical, religious or political system must ask and answer.
1. What's wrong? What is the dis-ease?
2. What's ideally possible? What is health?
3. What are the means of moving from dis-ease to health?
I will follow this outline in my presentations. The first thing we must do is give some definitions and descriptions of what we mean by secular and sacred-they are much thrown around in vague, judgmental and sentimental ways. Both words are shorthand for a narrative, a boss story, a myth. We are biomythic animals autobiographical animals who may become our own storytellers,
Secular--Its organizing myths
Secular--"the world" as opposed to the church. Inessence, the opposite of sacred.
Sacred--from sacrere---holy.
Sam Keen:
I was over educated at Harvard and Princeton and was a professor of philosophy and religion at various legitimate institutions for 20 years before becoming a contributing editor of Psychology Today,a freelance thinker,lecturer,seminar leader and consultant.
Sam is the the author of a bakers dozen books, he is a co-producer of an award winning PBS documentary, Faces of the Enemy. His work was the subject of a 60 minute PBS special Bill Moyers–Your Mythic Journey with Sam Keen.
For more on Sam's background and writings, visit his web site at samkeen.com
Books by Sam:
In the Absence of God:Dwelling in the Sacred
Sightings:Extraordinary Encounters with Ordinary Birds Faces of the Enemy
To Love and Be Loved
Hymns to an Unknown God
Fire in the Belly:On Being A Man
Inward Bound:Exploring the Geography of Your Emotions
Your Mythic Journey (with A.V. Fox)
Lecture I. The Dis-ease of Secularism
Friday, 7:30 PM-9:30 PM
Our governing myths are secular-In God we do not trust. In our governments and relationship to nature we do not practice reverence for life.
We will discuss the governing myths of our secular era: 1) Science, technology and the myth of progress 2) Economic myth 3) Consumerism 4) Myth of nationalism 5) Myth of war as the extension of policy-Got mit uns 6) Myth of romantic love 7) Myth of individualism
The essence of secularlism is the neglect, refusal, to ask the ultimate questions.
Exercises: How much do you live within each of these myths?
Lecture II. Healing and The Idea of the Sacred
Saturday 9:30 AM to approx. Noon
The essential meaning of Religion-Sacred-Spiritual are all linked: 1) Sacred = Otto-holy= tremendum et fascinans
(Psm 139 I a fearfully and wonderfully made---whither can I?)
2)Spirit= identity of self and the whole and 3)Religion-from religare-to restrain, tie back, yoke, ligature to be
dependent, to have confidence based on experience. It is what binds us to the
whole. Not necessarily connected to religious institutions, but to
communion.
And last is Spirituality-cultivating your inner garden.
Exercises: Where and when do you experience a sense of the holy? What is
the relationship between your religious practice and your "spiritual" practice?
Lecture III. The Practice of the Sacred
Saturday 1:00 PM -4:00 PM
In this last section we will confront these three primary issues.
- Going into the desert---demything your existence. Daring to realize how much you are controlled by secular world view.
- The practice of elemental emotions. De-repression and Sacred emotions
- The practice of justice-ecological, economic, political.
Directions
Westminster Presbyterian Church is located 1502 W. 13th Street in Wilmington, DE 19806. For directions go to their web site at www.wpc.org or call 302-654-5214. Printable Map
Or visit Google Maps (see below)or a similar web site for directions, which are also available by calling (302) 651-9533