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Many reflective men and women today,
caught in the transition
between two worlds, becoming increasingly aware of the inescapable
moral ambiguities in their daily lives, and burdened by the pain
of making necessary decisions in every complex life situation
for which easy moral answers of the past are no longer adequate,
are urgently seeking a chance to reflect creatively in depth upon
the meaning of the moral life and upon the labyrinthine process
of decision making.
Many reflective men and women today, acutely aware within themselves of a deep, uneasy, lonely emptiness which tranquilizers, diversions, and counselors do not cast out, and sick of the illusions, pretension, fake roles and masks by which they hide from life as it is, are yearning for the possibility of raising, in the company of similarly aware
people, the question of what life is all about.
Many reflective men and women today,
forced to face the breakdown
of authentic human relations in their marriages and homes, are
becoming aware of their participation in the widespread estrangement
and alienation in all social structures of our day, and are inwardly
longing to find a context through which they can enter into an
open dialogue with other awakened people about what it means to
live genuinely as human beings before one another.
Many reflective men and women today,
of all ages and in all walks
of life, successful or unsuccessful, experiencing an underlying
purposelessness in their work and sensing themselves trapped by
the tyranny of the economic processes of our time, are asking
for a situation wherein they can express and grapple openly and
honestly with their desire for a sense of participating authentically
in history in general and in modern man's creative response in
and to the brand new world about us.
Many reflective men and women today,
inside and outside the Church,
disturbed by the too easy answers which the Church offers to the
ills and anxieties of life, and grieved by the apparent irrelevance
of the Church to the actual life of twentieth century man, are
searching with real importunity for a way to raise anew the question
of the significance of the Christian gospel to the human situation
in our age and an occasion to discover new ways to serve the Church
in her mission in and to the world.
Many reflective men and women today, aroused and frightened by the realization that they and others of our time are caught in a maze of manipulative, subtly hidden conformist pressures, highly developed propaganda techniques, and educational processes that leave men somewhat short of a genuine education, are demanding an opportunity to discover what it means for a man to dare to think creatively for himself in the midst of a continuing conversation with others. All of this points to the meaning and
purpose of Laic Theological Studies.
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a theological education
"THE DECISIVE ELEMENT in the predicament of Western man in our period is his loss of the dimension of depth. . . What is the meaning of life? Where do we come from, where do we go to? What shall we do, what should we become in the short stretch between birth and death? Such questions are not answered or even asked if the "dimension of depth" is lost. And this is precisely what has happened to man in our period of history. He has lost the courage to ask such questions with an infinite seriousness-as former generations did-and he has lost the courage to receive answers to these questions, wherever they may come from."
-Paul Tillich
THE LAIC THEOLOGICAL STUDIES are stimulating,
downtoearth programs for men and women in all walks
of life who are concerned to come to grips with the ultimate human
problems as they present themselves in our day. In the studies,
a group of adults with various backgrounds, unique insights, and
individual concerns take part in the vital theological awakening
that is present at the growing edge of every field of thought
in our time, The program represents a twentieth century approach
to practical theological education for persons who are awake
to the perplexities of modern life and who desire to wrestle with
basic issues of life in depth and breadth.
THE STUDIES INVOLVE both lectures and seminar sessions but the emphasis in time and intention is upon the latter. Since the entire program probes beneath the superficialities of life, serious study is
required of all participating, in order
to grapple with the meaning of one's own responses to the upbeats
and downbeats of human existence.
THE STUDIES ALSO PROVIDE the opportunity
for a dialogue with culture. Contemporary art forms such
as movies, plays, short stories, sculpture, painting, and poetry
make possible the discovery of new ways to experience our own
lives. This interchange makes possible a deeper understanding
of the manifold ways in which the different responses to human
existence are expressed.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURES of
the studies is the chance to delve beneath the surface of our
false relationships and wrestle with the problem of what it means
to live before one another as whole persons. In our common
life together, through open and honest discussion, the participants
deal with the perplexities of friendship, contemporary marriage
and family life, and social and business relationships in the
midst of a world that is predominantly "other directed"
with its many pressures of conformity. Serious attention is given
to the common symbols through which one is enabled to become
who he understands himself to be.
THE WHOLE PROGRAM is an endeavor to recover the possibilities of genuine vocation in this new world. Amid the many "isms" that cry for our allegiance, the Laic Studies are an opportunity to regain the courage to dare to use our critical intelligence to decide and act in the light of our convictions, and thereby fulfill our legitimate responsibility to be free people in all aspects of our daily life.
toward an effective secular faith
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IA The Meaning of Human
Existence or The Problem of Faith. An
examination of the way in which the problem of life's meaning
is raised in the modern world and how the Christian understanding
of life addresses this issue the study of such terms as God, Christ,
Sin Community, etc.
IB The Modes of Human
Existence or The Christian Life as Faith/Unfaith: The various
ways in which man in the modern world is present to his existence
in relation to nature and history analyzed through the cate90ries
of freedom and unfreedom or faith and unfaith
IlA The Faith of the Covenant
Community or The Gospel in the Old Testament. After
brief consideration of the origin and nature of the writings and
formation of the Canon Old Testament theology is explored through
an inquiry into the various writers' views of man's selfunderstanding.
I!B The Selfunderstanding
of the Early Church or the New Testament Gospel An investigation
of the various ways in which the Early Church articulated that
which happened to them that they termed "the gospel "
through a study of the works of Paul, the synoptic writers, John,
and the later New Testament authors.
IIIA The Christian Movement in History or The Church's Witness in Various World Views
The response of the Church in and to the various historical times, through an inquiry into the writings of representative fathers such as Augustine, Thomas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley
Edwards, and Schleiermacher.
.
IIIB The Role of the Church in the Modern World or The Local Congregation as Mission
An analysis of the new understanding of the Church in our time The course will deal with such subjects as: the mission of the local congregation the meaning of common worship
the place and nature of education in the Church, and the nature and function of Christian Community.
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JVA The Meaning of Christian
Responsibility or The Christian Faith in Action An inquiry
into what it means to be a free, critical intelligent person in
the midst of the events and structures of our age. This involves
dealing with such concepts as responsibility decision, selfhood,
vocation, etc.
IVB The Life of Freedom
in the Social Structures or The Christian Community in the World:
This course deals concretely with the social orders their present
ills, and what responsible participation in them involves: The
family and married life the stale and citizenship. the economic
order and vocation, are particular areas which will be considered.
1, 11, 111, IV, C and D-The
Advanced Reading Courses are seminars in special subjects
problems and writers past and present under the general curriculum
divisions indicated in the chart. The intention in the advanced
studies is to deal with relatively compact areas in some depth.
For example, one entire course may be upon a work of Camus Luther,
or Tillich, or upon worship. the sacraments, the mission of the
Church, or upon marriage, race relations, the economic order,
etc.
The Laic Theological Studies are directed by an interdenominational group ministry of laymen and clergymen: Allan R. Brockway, Robert Bryant, W. Jack Lewis, William H. Maclay, Joseph W. Mathews, Joseph L. Pierce. and Joseph A. Slicker.
lar ministry In contemporary society
-Elmer G. Homrighausen, Dean,
Princeton Theological Seminary
The Christian FaithandLife Community was established in 1952 as an ecumenical research and training center for the purpose of pioneering and developing new ways and means in the theological education of the laity. Its several programs encompass residential theological education for university students "through the Community's College House) and a number of special programs for people of postcollege age. The latter are conducted through the Community's Laos House. In 1959, the Laic Theological Studies were instituted to meet the needs of an increasing number of persons both inside and outside the Church who are seeking a theological education adequate to their desire for intellectual honesty and integrity.
The most significant expression of the Church
that I have seen in the United States is the Christian Faith-and-Life
Community and the witness it represents.
-Dr. Hendrick Kraemer, founder and former Director, Ecumenical Institute, Switzerland
the laic theological studies
Three 6week courses per year
are held weekly on Thursday nights, beginning with dinner at 6
P.M. and lasting until 9:30 in the evening.
Tuition is six dollars for each sixweek
course. The cost of the evening meals for the sixweek period
is six dollars.
The course studies are conducted
in the lecture and seminar rooms of the Laos House at 700 West
1 9th Street. Dinner is prepared by the Laos House staff and served
in the dignified setting of the old mansion. When desired, arrangements
for child care are made by the Laos House at the nominal cost
of fifty cents per family.
WEEK END
Week end studies are held periodical!)
throughout the year. Each program begins with dinner on Friday
evening and continues through lunch on Sunday
The cost is the nominal sum of six
dollar! per day for room, meals, and tuition or twelve dollars
for the full week end.
The week end studies are held at the Christian FaithandLife Community' Laos House at 700 West 19th Street which is the old Wooten mansion. The nicely appointed rooms and carefully prepared meals along with the atmosphere of the old house provide pleasant setting for the week end.
procedures
LIFE IS ONLY GIVEN to me once and I shall never have it again; I don't
want to wait for the 'happiness of all'. I want to live myself, or else
better not live at all.... Where is it I've read that some one condemned
to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on
some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd have only room to stand,
and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude. everlasting
tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of
space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than
to die at once! Only to live, to live and live. Life! whatever it may be!"
-Dostoevsky
FOR APPLICATION