Mission

Counseling & Ministry

(Students are expected to select at least two of the following and refer to them in monthly personal reflections):

  • Chodron, Pema. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
  • Frankel, Estelle. Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing and Inner Wholeness
  • Margaret Kornfeld. Cultivating Wholeness: A Guide to Care and Counseling in Faith Communities
  • Kokomon Clottey & Aeesha Ababio-Clottey. Beyond Fear: Twelve Spiritual Keys to Racial Healing
  • Stephanie Dowrick, Seeking the Sacred
  • Kenneth Boa. Augustine To Freud: What Theologians & Psychologists Tell Us About Human Nature (And Why It Matters)
  • Derald Wing Sue & David Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice
  • Duane R. Bidwell, Short Term Spiritual Guidance

Reading

First Year Reading List – Required

Religion texts:

  • Huston Smith, The World’s Religions
  • Theodore Richards, Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism, and the Birth of a New Myth
  • Sharma, Arvind ed. Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from each Tradition
  • Eliade, Mircea ed. Essential Sacred Writings From Around the World

Dialogue

Interfaith Relations & Dialogue

(Students are expected to read the first text [Speights] and at least one of the others and refer to them in monthly reflections)

  • Jay Speights, Seven Days with Adam (Required)
  • Stephen Greenbaum, The Interfaith Alternative: Embracing Spiritual Diversity
  • S Wesley Ariarajah, Not Without My Neighbor: Issues in Interfaith Relations
  • Eboo, Patel, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America
  • Ted Falcon, Don MacKenzie, & Jamal Rahman, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith
  • Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur Magida, How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook

The following books are not required reading but students are expected to read at least one of them each month as they study the world’s religions:

Comparative Religion, Integral Spirituality, Mythology

  • Lotus Prayer Book: A Prayer for Every Heart, Satchitananda Ashram
  • Matthew Fox, One River, Many Wells
  • Wilber, Ken. Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Postmodern World
  • Ferrer, Jorge. Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality
  • James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience
  • Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4,000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
  • Armstrong, Karen. The Case for God
  • Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces
  • Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth, and Art
  • Prothero, Stephen. God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World
  • Bellah, Robert N. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age

Reading

Mysticism

  • Teasdale, Wayne. The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions.
  • Meyer, Marvin and Willis Barnstone eds. The Gnostic Bible
  • Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
  • Burkert, Walter. Ancient Mystery Cults
  • Jon Mundy, What is Mysticism?

Reading

Christianity

  • Borg, Marcus. Meeting Jesus again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus & the Heart of Contemporary Faith.
  • Chilton, Bruce. Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography.
  • Crossan, John Dominic, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant
  • Neil Douglas-Klotz. Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus.
  • Eckhart, Meister. Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality in New Translation, ed. & trans. Matthew Fox
  • Fiorenza, Elizabeth Schussler. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins
  • Fox, Matthew. Original Blessing.
  • Hayes, John H. Introduction to the Bible
  • Harvey, Andrew. Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ.
  • Jonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity
  • Kung, Hans. The Catholic Church: A Short History
  • Moser, Mary Beth. Honoring Darkness: Exploring the Power of Black Madonnas in Italy.
  • Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels
  • Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited

Reading

Islam/Sufism

  • Chittick, William C. The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi.
  • Chittick, William C. Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul: The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World.
  • Douglas-Klotz, Neil. The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish.
  • Khan, Hazrat Inayat. The Heart of Sufism.
  • Murata, Sachiko. The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought.
  • Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines
  • Rauf, Imam Faisal Abdul. What’s Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West
  • Sells, Michael trans. Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations.
  • Shah, Idries The Way of the Sufi

Reading

Judaism/Kabbalah

  • Buber, Martin. I and Thou
  • Cooper, Rabbi David A. God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism
  • Gottlieb, Lynn. She Who Dwells Within: A Feminist Vision of a Renewed Judaism.
  • Matt, Daniel C. ed. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism.
  • Patai, Raphael. The Hebrew Goddess.
  • Scholem, Gershom. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism

Reading

Hinduism

  • Doniger, Wendy, The Hindus: An Alternative History
  • Aurobindo, Sri.. The Future Evolution of Man: The Divine Life upon Earth.
  • Chapple, Christopher K., and Mary Evelyn Tucker, eds. Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water.
  • Easwaran, Eknath, trans. The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living.
  • Griffiths, Bede. The Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu Way to God.
  • Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on Yoga
  • Mascaro, Juan, trans. The Upanishads
  • Satchidananda, Swami Sri. Integral Yoga: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Reading

Indigenous Religions, Shamanism, Neo-Paganism

  • Raven Kaldera. Dealing with Deities: Practical Polytheistic Theology
  • Galina Krasskova. Essays in Modern Heathenry
  • Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts
  • Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola. Dark Mother: African Origins and Godmothers
  • Black Elk, Nicholas, and John G. Neihardt. Black Elk Speaks
  • Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
  • Freeman, Mara. Kindling the Celtic Spirit
  • Grim., John A. ed. Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community
  • Harvey, Graham ed. Shamanism: A Reader
  • Lewis, I.M. Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism.
  • Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy
  • O’Donohue, John, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
  • Stone, Merlin. When God was a Woman

Reading

Taoism/Chinese Religions

  • Fowler, Jeaneane. Pathways to Immortality: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Religion of Taoism
  • Cleary, Thomas, trans. The Taoist I Ching.
  • Watson, Burton trans. Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings
  • Yang, Jwing-Ming. The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets for Health, Longevity & Enlightenment.
  • Yi Wu trans. The Book of Lao Tzu (The Tao Te Ching)

Reading

Buddhism

  • Bercholz, Samuel and Sherab Chodzin Kohn eds. The Buddha and His Teachings.
  • Evans-Wentz, W.Y. The Tibetan Book of the Dead
  • Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Meditation
  • Kohn, Michael H. trans. The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen
  • Macy, Joanna. World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal.
  • Palihawadana, Mahinda, and John Ross Carter trans. The Dhammapada
  • Sadakata, Akira. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins
  • Trungpa, Chogyam. Cutting through Spiritual Materialism
  • Suzuki, D.T. Zen Buddhism
  • Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Duncan Ryuken Williams. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds.
  • Thurman, Robert, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness

Reading

 Science & Spirituality, Eco-spirituality

  • Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth
  • Haught, John F. ed., Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose
  • O’Murchu, Diarmud. Evolutionary Faith: Rediscovering God in our Great Story
  • Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story

STUDENT TEXTS & READING LIST

Admissions

Contact us at (914)429-3876 to begin the enrollment process.

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