Shea Courses

Until the beginning the Corona Pandemic, Shea Courses were held as in-person events. Forced online during the pandemic, the Shea Courses became podcasts that could still reach many hungry listeners. Over the months, these podcasts have reached a far wider and larger audience, many of whom never had the opportunity to participate in the evenings. In order to continue to introduce this swelling audience to the thought and the theology of John Shea, we are continuing to offer these presentations as podcasts.

John Shea is not only a Master Storyteller, but a master of a narrative way of living and doing theology. He is an artist of the narrative. He is a genuine weaver of words. Life flows through his theology like crackling electricity as he wraps you in humour, wrenches your heart, casts light into your mind and heals your spirit. Here is a theology that teaches us to be a ceaseless watcher of the life that unfolds around us. It shows us a path by which we absorb the myriad tales of wit and woe, passion and power, trial, torment and tribulation.

»That is why we practice the ancient and revered art and craft of telling the stories of God. We band of bards and tale weavers wield the words of faith and empowerment with and for our people, determined never to waver in our resolve so that we might never willingly or foolishly relinquish our contact with this power. For deep within our souls, at the thin place, we know that this power bears His name. It is as close as we come to brushing our fingertips across the face of God.«

– Erik Riechers

Nächster Abschnitt

Shea Courses 2023

The Difference between Curing and Healing

The surgeon knows all the parts of the brain but he does not know his patient's dreams.

Richard Selzer

 

In the Gospel song »Michael, row the boat ashore«, the lyrics sing: »The river Jordan is chilly and cold, hallelujah. Chills the body but not the soul, hallelujah.« However, sometimes it is the other way around. When a person is cured, but not healed, then we have helped the body, but not the soul. In this year’s Shea Course, we will look at the way in which John Shea proposes to prevent that from happening.

In his »Letters to a Young Doctor«, Richard Selzer writes: »You cannot separate passion from pathology any more than you can separate a person's spirit from his body.« Narrative Theology seeks to heal people, by telling them stories, listening to their stories and helping them to tell the stories to which they find little access. To avoid merely curing the body, we must remind the wounded and the ill of possibilities long forgotten. To enable genuine healing, we must awaken them to the many paths of which they have never dreamed. Only in this way, can we avoid knowing all the parts of the body and none of the sufferer’s dreams.

 

January When healers of the body suffer illiteracy of the heart: The importance of the spiritual life if salvation is to happen
February The Characters in our Stories of Salvation
March The others who invest heart and soul in a healing story
April When the care of the soul wants to take its place alongside medicine: A practical knowledge of the spiritual
May Interiority: That we do not become the mechanics of the body
June The Spiritual Life as a Resource for Healing

You can listen to this podcasts in German under the following link:

https://soundcloud.com/user-507746930