The Director’s Mid-Week Forum
Lost Truths?
Real & Imagined Histories
Behind Dan Brown’s Latest Fiction
Conspiracies galore! Dan Brown’s blockbuster novels—Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code and now The Lost Symbol —specialize in page-turning stories about discovering secret societies and hidden forces behind history. Behind these fictional accounts is the real history of movements like the Freemasons and other groups. Conspiracy theories about what secret cabal (Skull and Bones? The Illuminati?) “really” runs things abound in every era. We’ll track the history of the Masonic Order, the Knights Templars, and others, and inquire into their real and imagined influence in history.
Robert Corin Morris, with guests
5 Wednesdays beg. Nov. 4 (no class Nov. 25)
9:30-11:30 a.m., $60 ($50 Members), Drop-in, $20
Summit Center
The next Wednesday Forum, “The New American Landscape:
Culture, Media, Values and Spirituality in Transition,”
begins Jan. 20 (p. 13).
Register for this class Instructors Directions
An Evening with James Joyce
Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, Dubliners are all a challenge that defeats many readers. Learn how to read one of the least-read masters of modern English prose! Dr. R. John Cooper, author of James Joyce-A Portrait of the Artist as an Irish Prophet, will show you how to “crack the code” using the liturgical calendar as a guide. You’ll discover Joyce as an ‘Irish prophet’ steeped in Catholic lore.
R. John Cooper
Thursday, Nov. 5
7:30-9:00 p.m., $10
Christ Church, Short Hills
Register for this class Instructors Directions
Jewish Spirituality
Can We Make Room for All of Us?
Balancing Humility, Ego, and the Divine Presence
Do Jews meditate? Practice mindfulness training and the age-old discipline of spiritual chanting? Understand the meaning of silence? The quick answer is YES! Learn with a rabbi and teacher who has been working hard to unfold his own spiritual understanding and practice as he balances both pulpit and personal journeys. While he does consider himself a Neo-Hasidist, he does not wear curls behind his ears or a long black coat. This compelling history of Jewish spirituality will balance learning intriguing and ancient text with space for the spiritual experience to unfold.
Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz
Sunday, November 8, 3-5 p.m.
$35 ($30 Members)
Summit Center
Register for this class Instructors Directions
Re-enchanting the World
Renewing the Imagination in Retreat with C.S.Lewis
Recover your ability for enchantment! We’ll spend 24 hours feasting on the insights of C.S. Lewis through presentation, discussion, group meditation, sharing, worship, and plenty of silence. Lewis was a man with “a willingness to be enchanted...an openness to delight, to the sense that there’s more to the world than meets the jaundiced eye.” His renaissance vision encompassed philosophy, social criticism, literary scholarship, Christian apologetics, satire, science fiction, and children’s fantasies. Noted author John Granger will join us to explore the “cosmic Logos” shining behind and within nature, mind and heart.
John Granger, Lisa Green, Robert Corin Morris
Sat., Nov. 21, 3 p.m.-Sun., Nov. 22, 3 p.m., $155 ($145 Members)
St. Marguerite’s Retreat House, Community of St. John Baptist, Mendham
Please reserve your place by Nov. 7
Cosponsored by Interweave and Christ Church, Short Hills
Register for this class Instructors Directions
