Multi-Religious Intensive: Amidst the Blessing of the Ancestors

Amidst the Blessing of the Ancestors weaves teachings on organic multireligiosity from Ibrahim Baba (Dr. Ibrahim Farajaje’) with practices of ancestor reverence and healing. According to Ibrahim Baba, organic multiregliosity “interrupts practices of considering religions as monolithic, rigidly-separated traditions in conflict with one another [and] rather understands them as having complex and constantly-morphing relationships in successive generations and in ever-widening geographical and cultural contexts.”

This online synchronous intensive focuses on embodying multireligiosity in personal practice, tending multireligiosity in spiritual leadership and public worship, and engaging multireligiosity toward countering oppression and cultural (mis)appropriation. The intensive also engages embodied practice around ancestor reverence and healing – in spiritual lineage and family / blood lineage – as a way of anchoring multireligious expression, countering oppression, and aligning to blessing. Each day of the intensive combines conceptual exploration of multireligiosity, embodied practice of counter-oppressive devotion and tending work in ancestral lineage ritual and repair. Course texts include multi-media selections from Ibrahim Baba, readings by Adrienne Maree Brown on intersectionality and emergent strategy, and Ancestral Medicine by Daniel Foor.

PRIOR to the intensive, students are expected to complete select readings as well as to submit a reflection paper on personal experiences of multireligiosity and ancestral tending. At the completion of the course, students submit a second reflection paper weaving their learnings and experiences in the intensive.

Required for the M.Div. and/or MASC. Relates to Thresholds: 1. Life in Religious Community and Interfaith Engagement 2. Prophetic Witness and Work 4. History of Dissenting Traditions and the Theological Quest 5. Spiritual Practice and Care of the Soul 6. Theology in Culture and Context 7. Educating for Wholeness and Liberation 8. Embodied Wisdom and Beauty and MFC: 1. Worship and Rites of Passage 3. Spiritual Development for Self and Others 4. Social Justice in the Public Square.

Course meets January 13-17, 9:30am-3pm PT.

Max.enrollment: 20. Auditors excluded.