Spirituality 101

Harriet L. Schwartz

Description

Inspiration & Information for those who want more from
college than just a degree.

Who do you want to be? Are you spiritual? Religious? Still figuring it out? Regardless of where you are, college is an intense time of choices, challenge, and growth.

Full of opportunities to learn from students from around the country and many different faith traditions, Spirituality 101 is the perfect companion for college students seeking spiritual fulfillment on campus. Including practical, hands-on advice and information from experienced faculty and student affairs professionals, this is your indispensable guide to the choices and possibilities available throughout your college experience, and beyond.

Spirituality 101 also offers more than 40 personal student reflections—sometimes funny, sometimes serious, always honest and wise—that will motivate and energize you to explore your own questions and commitments.

Your complete guide to navigating a spiritual life on campus:

• Finding Your Place: Who Do You Want to Be?
• Reading, Writing, and Religion: Spirituality in the Classroom and Beyond
• The Club Scene: Membership and Leadership in Campus Organizations
• Sex, Drugs, and Rock’n’ Roll: Spirituality and Your Social Life
• Turning Points: Spiritual Awakening or Crisis of Faith?
• Assumptions, Intolerance, Hate, and a Hope for Something Better
• Hey, What Does That Mean? Talking with Others about Your Spirituality
• Significant Others: Family, Friends, and Mentors
• Taking It Off Campus
• A Cap, a Gown, and a Commitment to Faith

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Spirituality
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 12 avril 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594734403
• Langue: English

Extrait

For my grandmothers, with love.
This book is for people of all traditions. More than forty students and campus professionals, each firmly positioned within his or her own spiritual faith tradition, have written thoughtful and valuable contributions. Representing various Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and other traditions-as can be seen in the Contributors section at the end of this book- Spirituality 101 is meant to provide an opening for discussion among people of any and all faiths and to be a helpful guide for students and educators on college campuses everywhere.
CONTENTS
Introduction
1 FINDING YOUR PLACE: WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE?
Welcome to the Jungle
Spirituality as Stress Management
The Admissions Interview
Some of My Best Friends Are
First Puja and Then on to Mass
Sick of Salad: What to Do When Campus Dining Doesn t Meet Your Needs
A Tale of Two Roommates
Like the One You re With: Making the Most of Life with Your New Roommate
Uncertainty
Looking for Help in All the Right Places
2 READING, WRITING, AND RELIGION: SPIRITUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND
Looking to Scripture
When Academic Ideas and Faith Collide
Politically Incorrect
When Finals Fall on a Holy Day
At the Same Table
Singing in Different Languages
3 THE CLUB SCENE: MEMBERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP IN CAMPUS ORGANIZATIONS
Finding Fellowship
What You Need to Know about Cultic Behaviors
Dharma Brat
An Orange on Our Seder Plate
Can t Find a Spiritual Group That Works for You? Start Your Own!
4 SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK N ROLL: SPIRITUALITY AND YOUR SOCIAL LIFE
Motivation on a Friday Night
How to Have a Meaningful Social Life without Spiritual Compromise
Freedom and Caution
Divine Intervention
You and Your Crush
Hey, Baby What s Your Religious Belief System?
5 TURNING POINTS: SPIRITUAL AWAKENING OR CRISIS OF FAITH?
My Truth
Religion, Politics, and Peace of Mind after 9/11
Fighting with God
When Faith Fails
The Journey of a Pilgrim
Out of the Closet, In the Spirit
Never Mind John Belushi, How about a Bar Mitzvah?
6 ASSUMPTIONS, INTOLERANCE, HATE, AND A HOPE FOR SOMETHING BETTER
I Don t Sit in Full Lotus
Playing Spiritual Hardball
Peace and Pepperoni Pizza
Shalom and Salaam
Grassroots Organizing-Make It Happen
7 HEY, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? TALKING WITH OTHERS ABOUT YOUR SPIRITUALITY
Theological Painting
Kosher Scandinavian Goulash
The Power of a Potluck
Hindu at Holy Cross
Get Out There and Learn
Trading Traditions
Uncomfortable and Aware
8 SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND MENTORS
Family Ties
Rooming with Mom at Church Camp
My Sister Sophie
Praying for an Extension: The Border between Faith and Necessity
On Friendship and Finding God
The Buddhist Godfather
An Alphabet of Advice: You and Your Mentor
9 TAKING IT OFF CAMPUS
Walk Down to the Coffee Shop and Take a Left: Finding a Faith Community Off Campus
My Other College Classrooms
Faith and Leadership in Action: The Habitat Experience
Moment after Moment: A Zen Retreat
Things to Do in Australia #7: Getting beyond Sorta Christian
10 A CAP, A GOWN, AND A COMMITMENT TO FAITH
Nothing Is Routine
Counting Sheep and Counting My Blessings
Religion on the Resume
Ready for Vocation
Conclusion
Further Resources
Acknowledgments
Contributors
About the Author
Copyright
Also Available
About SkyLight Paths
INTRODUCTION
Who do you want to be?
Are you spiritual? Religious? Still figuring it out?
Does your faith jump-start your day or get you through long nights?
Does your faith rein you in, or set you free?
How is college impacting your spirituality?
Do you feel called by your faith, or does it drive you?
Has faith been a point of connection with others, or a reminder that you are different?
In this time and place, has your faith tradition been a positive or a negative-for you, your family, and your people (whomever you consider your people to be)?
Are you proud of what your spiritual tradition stands for and how it is perceived? If so, how will you continue to support that? If not, will you reinvent it on a personal level and perhaps even become an activist?
Who do you want to be?
Y ou may be looking for answers, but this book is about the questions.
Sure, there is plenty of advice between the front and back covers. And you will have many opportunities to learn from other students who have explored their own spirituality and found their own answers along the way. But first and foremost, this book is about helping you frame and explore the questions that you face as you explore your spirituality.
This book is a conversation. I began this conversation by seeking students from all over the country, from as many traditions as possible, who, by writing and contributing their own experiences, would lead us by example-show us their questions, their searching, their answers. To solicit student and staff contributions, I contacted campus faith leaders, faculty members of related disciplines, student organization leaders, and staff at relevant national organizations.
As students began to respond to my call for submissions, the process became more and more exciting. I imagined these dynamic storytellers with a vast range of experiences, all eagerly sharing their lives with us readers, all these diverse points of view, all under one tent. Imagine sitting with a group of students, one who solidified his Christianity while studying in Australia, another who can take you inside a Buddhist retreat, and another who shares with you the tale of her interview for rabbinical school . These students, and more than twenty-five others who wrote, did so independently and not in dialogue with each other. Taken as a whole, however, the contributions in this book became a new conversation. Although the essays were divided into categories, the themes overlap as stories affirm and sometimes challenge each other. We as readers make the discussion three-dimensional.
The students who have contributed their writings to this book are thoughtful, committed to their own growth and that of others, at times funny, and at times very serious. Their stories have energized me and motivated me to continue exploring my own spiritual growth and commitments. You will find these stories to be a fascinating and inspiring collection of ideas and emotions. At times you may feel validated when a writer articulates something you have been feeling but hadn t yet put into words. At other times, you will be challenged as you are faced with ideas that differ from your own perspective.
One of the most fascinating points that emerges again and again in the student contributions is the importance of engaging in discussions and in communities with people who come from differing points of view. Although many of us often seek the comfort of communities of people like us, the stories in this book point strongly to the power of bumping up against ideas different from our own. Many people fear that coming to understand a new perspective will dilute their own commitments. In fact, the opposite proves to be true. Time and again, the student writers who learned the most about themselves did so while learning to understand and living alongside students who brought a different experience to the table. This kind of exploring requires curiosity balanced with conviction and confidence balanced with an open mind.
So, take your time with this book. Savor the questions. Seek to become comfortable living in a space of not always knowing. Find good companions. And enjoy the journey. Wisdom often arrives when we have the opportunity to think and wonder aloud.
CHAPTER 1
FINDING YOUR PLACE: WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE?
You have unpacked your bags and boxes. You have bought your books and figured out where to get the cheapest pizza. And now you wonder.
You wonder whether you will like your classes. You wonder whether it will be hard to meet people. You wonder where on campus you will get involved. Finally, you have a vague wondering about how you will do spiritually in this new place. At this time, you can t really articulate what that means, but if you were to reflect on it four years from now, you would realize this is a question that has both subtle and visible answers. Who will you be in relation to others-classmates, professors, and friends? Who will you be in relation to the religion you were (or were not) raised with? Will you make time for spiritual practice? Who are you now in relation to the person you want to be?
I f you grew up involved in a particular faith tradition, college is the time when you continue to solidify your commitment, redefine that commitment for yourself, or, in some cases, reject that tradition and find a new sense of spirituality that suits you better. If you grew up without involvement in a faith community, college may very well be the time when you begin to sort out your own sense of spirituality.
You have chosen your college-maybe for serious and specific reasons, such as believing it will give you the perfect spiritual environment in which to study, or maybe for less specific but nonetheless compelling reasons, feeling the campus just seemed right when you visited, for example. Or maybe it s the school that offered you the most financial aid (a persuasive reason indeed!). Regardless, the school that you have committed to will provide you with a host of spiritual challenges.
You may be someone who was seeking relative spiritual safety when picking your school, deciding to go to a religiously affiliated college with people like you. Indeed, you will find yourself surrounded by students, faculty, and staff who share your same tradition, on a campus with plenty of opportunities for worship, service, study, and other manifestations of your faith. You will also find yourself on a campus with plenty of people who share your tradition but who are, in other ways, very different fro