NEW: People’s Catholic Seminary – PCS 506 Ancient Christian Texts for Healing - New cohort begins Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 7pm EDT and ends on June 21, 2022.

NEW: People’s Catholic Seminary – PCS 506 Ancient Christian Texts for Healing

PCS 506 Ancient Christian Texts for Healing 

New cohort begins Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 7pm EDT and ends on June 21, 2022. 

This course is available now for independent study.

 

Seeking health and wholeness is being human, and the wisdom from antiquity regarding health offers immeasurable value and a firm basis. This course opens the pages of mostly forgotten books written by the earliest followers of Jesus. Although we discuss why these ancient texts were not included in the Bible and how they were re-discovered, our main interest for this course lies in the healing messages they contain. The more we ponder their meaning, the more we find resonance in Biblical teachings as well. 

$100

Click here for more information and to enroll in this course.

Shirley Paulson, PhD – Course Instructor

Shirley Paulson, PhD is the founder and principal producer of Early Christian Texts: The Bible and Beyond. Shirley’s academic work focuses on early Christian writings, especially those relating to healing practices and theology. Her new book is Illuminating the Secret Revelation of John: Catching the Light, and she contributed to a chapter in Westar’s After Jesus Before Christianity. She currently serves on the Westar Institute’s Board of Directors. Prior to this work, Shirley served as the first Head of Ecumenical Affairs for the global headquarters of the Christian Science Church and served on the Board of the North American Academy of Ecumenists. 

Since this is an introductory course, I presume you know little or nothing about the lost and forgotten books, gospels, letters, and texts written about a hundred years after Jesus. Some of them are controversial, some inspiring, and some quite confusing to modern readers. But I will introduce you to the ones we’ll use in the course – how to find them, how to read them, and how to understand their basic messages.

Who should or shouldn’t take this course?• If you’re interested in expanding your ideas about healing… If you’re a scholar of religion without specific training in extra-canonical texts…

• If you want to alleviate suffering in the world or deal with tragedies and human sorrows…
• If you’re curious about what was going on during and after the New Testament time…
• If you like challenging yourself with big philosophical and religious ideas…
• If you are seeking deep answers to religious questions…
• If you have had some kind of uplifting, inspiring experience with a sacred text…

Then you definitely want to get going with this course!