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Past Program Offerings A list of previous courses and events that the Reformed Institute has offered. “A Divine and Supernatural Light”: Jonathan Edwards and America Course Instructor: Melissa Kirkpatrick (Company of Teachers) No one argues about it: Jonathan Edwards is colonial America’s greatest theologian and philosopher. He towers over the age as a religious figure. But though his roots are in colonial Puritanism, he worked to reshape a Puritan worldview into something quite different. He was modern for his own time. He sought to reconcile higher learning of the day with a loving piety and achieved this with an elegance not since seen. The publication of his massive collected works, begun in 1957, is only just now being completed. In this course, happening more than 250 years after his death, we will take advantage of this recent scholarship and explore how Edwards and his work have continued to have an impact on American thought. Living According to the Word: Reformed Spirituality Course Instructor: Eric O. Springsted (Company of Teachers) What is involved in the lived knowledge of God? What does it mean to say, as Calvin did, that “nearly all the wisdom we possess consists of the knowledge of God and of ourselves?” This course will look at how beliefs and practices are linked in the Reformed tradition. While it will deal with Reformed spirituality historically, it will chiefly be concerned with what it means to live as a Reformed believer now — of what we can do to recover the vitality of the Word of God in church and personal life. Topics will include prayer, worship, sacraments, vocation, intellectual life, and communal life. Confirmation Retreat - Storming the Sanctuary Workshop leader: Matthew Myer Boulton, Associate Professor of Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and First Service Choir Director at Old South Church (UCC) in Boston. A weekend retreat for youth making a public profession of faith and their leaders where they'll learn about the original revolutionaries of the church – and discver concrete ways we can carry on their revolutionary legacy today. There will be interactive, hands-on workshops, as well as a concluding worship service, in which we’ll put what we’ve learned into practice. An Educated Laity: An Obsolete Idea? Course Instructor: R. Bruce Douglass The idea of a Biblically and theologically literate laity is basic to the Reformed understanding of Christian discipleship, and dedicated adherence to that idea has long been one of the defining features of Reformed piety. But in our time it is increasingly being called into question. These days life is simply too fast-paced, it is said, and people are too busy to practice the faith that way anymore. The purpose of this course is to explore the validity of that claim in the light of what Reformed Christians have said and done in the past about the role of learning in the practice of Christianity. Leadership
Development Event For officers of the church who want to understand better the sources of American Presbyterianism and the ideas on which the current practices of the PC (USA) are based. The program included two presentations:
An event for lay and professional church leaders designed to facilitate fresh strategic thinking about the church's educational ministry. When was the last time you took part in a serious discussion of the "big picture" in the educational ministry of your church? When have you had a chance to step back from the routine of program planning and take a good, hard look at some of the more fundamental issues at stake in that part of your church's life? The event was designed to provide such an opportunity, and to do so in a manner that will stimulate fresh thinking on the relevant issues. Our premise that it can no longer be taken for granted that the educational ministry of our churches can be carried on in the familiar ways. The time has come to acknowledge that we are facing a situation that demands something more from us than just business as usual. The program included two presentations:
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