CERTIFICATION’S PROGRAM
Knowledge, ArtS and Interiority
THE PROGRAM EXPOSES STUDENTS TO SALIENT ARTISTIC / INTELLECTUAL WORKS AND PROVIDES THE CONCEPTUAL TOOLS NEEDED TO CRITICALLY ANALYZE THEM TOGETHER WITH SHARED EXPERIENCES OF SILENCE/MEDITATION.
4 MODULES / 18 TOPICS
The modules address the four basic dimensions of human consciousness
PERSONAL: know thyself – silence – fulfilment – suffering – joy – solitude
INTERPERSONAL: love – forgiveness – freedom – innocence
TRANSCENDENT: grace – community – truth – justice
IMMANENT: humility – word – prayer – meaning
Each of the 18 topics will be developed by means of eight monthly lectures distributed between a Saturday (2 lectures) and a full weekend (6 lectures).
Each monthly lecture corresponds to one of 8 distinctive intellectual / artistic perspectives (see below).
8 PERSPECTIVES
LITERATURE – FINE ARTS – MUSIC – BIBLE – THEOLOGY- SCIENCE – PHILOSOPHY – POLITICS
These perspectives are presented as equal in practical and conceptual terms and have equal lecture time. Bible and Theology are not included to provide answers to the questions raised by the Sciences or the Humanities, but all eight perspectives are expected to challenge and sustain each other in a common quest for meaning. Students are thus invited to interact beyond all disciplinary boundaries in a lively spiritual dialogue and to critically analyze some of the basic aspects of our common humanity.
METHODOLOGY
Each professor is required to focus her/his lecture on A PEARL of her/his choice. The PEARL is not an idea, but a concrete fruit of the human spirit, for example a novel, a poem, a painting, a sculpture, a movie, a piece of music, a scientific experiment, an essay or a social experience.
In order for it to be an authentic PEARL, the professor has to have a subjective link to it, that is, at some point, she/he should have learnt from it something personally valuable about the topic at hand.
Each PEARL will be analyzed in depth during the lecture and afterwards the students will engage critically with it in small group discussions. At the end of each month, students will have been exposed to eight salient examples of how the human spirit in its creativity has dealt with the topic at hand. A one-hour interdisciplinary discussion will take place at the closure of each topic. All professors and all students are expected to be present and active in it.
PROGRAM
Academic requirements for admission:
– Students may enroll as Full-students or Audit-students.
– To enroll as a Full-student, applicants need a bachelor or a higher degree.
– To enroll as an Audit-student, no academic requirements apply.
Practical information:
– Students in both modalities (Full and Audit) may register for on-site or
online learning (Registrar’s Office: marisa@sincletica.cat).
– The on-site lectures will take place at Villa Engràcia (villaengracia.com),
next to the medieval monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet (poblet.com).
– The language of teaching and learning is English.
– All lectures will be video-taped and subtitled into English, Catalan and
Spanish for later viewing.
PROGRAM
