A Course in May
Spiritual not religious: Celebrating the wonder of life in a troubled world
This is a five-week interactive course, with input and room for questions and discussion. In this course, I talk about the complexities of modern living. I introduce a developmental way of discovering and enjoying wonder. In other words, we are meant to grow, learn, and move on. Sometimes, along the way, we need to let things go. In the end, it is about naming, claiming, and living-out our core values. The course will cover the following issues:
The myth of the perfect life
The problem with power
- Bullying and trauma
- Losing my religion and finding new direction
- There is no such thing as the perfect family
- False leads and new wisdom
- The value of grief work
- Contentment, at last
- An ethic of care
- Friendship
Biography
Dr Steven Ogden is parish priest at St Mary Magdalene’s Anglican Church 26 Moore St. He is a long-standing ally, former principal of St Francis Theological College Brisbane and Dean of St Peter’s Cathedral Adelaide.
Steven is a social commentator and theologian, specializing in issues around human identity, spirituality, and community. His research interests include political philosophy, gender- based violence, and masculinity. He is interested in the work of Judith Butler, and Michel Foucault. He is a member of the North American Foucault Circle, the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy, and The Political Theology Network. Steven has published The Church, Authority, and Foucault (Routledge, 2017) examining the use and misuse of power in the church, focusing on hubris and the sanctification of obedience. Recently, he published Violence, Entitlement, and Politics (Routledge, 2022) identifying entitlement as primarily a masculine gender pattern, distinguished by possessive thinking and behaviour.