by Kathleen Froese
What are my expectations and hopes for this summer seminar? They are many and mixed. Two weeks of immersion in ‘science & spirituality’ is an opportunity that was not within my field of vision several months ago. Now, I see it as a great chance to increase my knowledge base in the subject area. I am a beginner and there is no doubt in my mind that I will soak up and learn at an incredible rate. To borrow terms from the field of language acquisition, I will say that I am presently a receptive learner; I do not yet fluently speak the language of science and spirituality. I often paraphrase the words of “experts” and struggle with my own articulation. My expectation/goal is that I will become an expressive learner. That is, not only do I want to learn the concepts and ideas of science and spirituality, but I also want to speak and communicate with others at a deeper level about this topic.
The time in Oxford will also be a time to connect to Union learners and interesting people. It will be a time to lift my head up from my studies, work, and family and soak up new learning. I see it as a time when I may evaluate old ideas, and perhaps clarify and more clearly define my own interests in this field. There is no doubt in my mind that it will be stimulating.
One of my main interests is to explore how persons (including myself) who are re-framing/developing new perspectives on the interrelationship of science and spirituality, translate their ideas and beliefs into a lived experience in daily life. Do these intriguing intellectual concepts evolve into pragmatic practice? I hope to further explore this during the seminar by questions and observations.
I also anticipate exploring my own cultural and spiritual roots. My heritage is of a fundamental Christian nature, but from an early age I did not feel at home in this theology nor could I ever find my place there. Today, I do not call myself a Christian but I recognize the powerful force Christianity had in shaping who I am. I do not reject it in an active, emotional sense, but I also do not embrace it in practice or as a belief system. I am curious though, to see if this seminar will reveal to me anything that resonates after my long departure from the Christian fold. I also recognize that further investigation into Christian theology and its continuous dance with Western science will, in a greater sense, inform me of why my culture is so estranged from the natural world. Maybe this seminar can also enlighten me as to how this separation may be healed, and how I may integrate new learning into my teaching and future therapeutic practice.
So yes, I have a lot of questions and I would not be honest if I didn’t also admit that a certain amount of anxiety exists because I am beginning a new area of study and I have no expertise to fall back on. It brings to mind my favorite words by Rilke.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…. do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
Ranier Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet