“Transcendent,” “otherworldly,” “heavenly,” “sublime” — how common it is to hear moving musical experiences, and by no means exclusively in religious contexts, described in such religiously inflected terms as these. Could this intuitive suggestion point to something truthful about music’s potential to direct the human heart to the divine?
This course will provide an opportunity for theological reflection on music from a Christian perspective, claiming music’s real potential to become an occasion of encounter with God. We will explore the major theological underpinnings of music, understood as a force of spiritual significance and potency. We will apply to music a Catholic theological lens, drawing on the language of sacrament, incarnation, beauty, contemplation, and discipleship. The course will suggest ways that a sincere and Christ-oriented engagement with music might enrich the spiritual life. To bolster our study, we will focus on an illuminating musical selection in each session.
This course is offered as a hybrid course. Participants who wish to attend in-person will gather in Regis College St. Joseph Chapel. Participants who wish to attend virtually will use the Zoom link provided. The Zoom link can be used for all six classes of “World Christianity.” All participants will receive a Zoom conferencing link in the confirmation email and again in the weekly email reminders.
Register online by clicking the button below. A credit card is required. Please read the conditions of enrolment before registering.
Register Online for Windows on Theology: Music and Christian Spirituality
Register by mail by downloading the registration form and completing by hand. Enclose cheque payable to “Regis College” and mail to Regis College, 100 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2Z5.
Download Registration Form
Architecture gives tangible, meaningful expression to a culture’s belief, values, hopes, and aspirations.
The Christian architecture shaping Sacred Spaces responds to external influences and the changing ways we understand our relationship to God and creation.
Participants learn to understand their places of worship and how they support or detract from the sacred and sacramental life of the parish.
This course is offered as a hybrid course. Participants who wish to attend in-person will gather in Regis College St. Joseph Chapel. Participants who wish to attend virtually will use the Zoom link provided. The Zoom link can be used for all six classes of “Understanding Sacred Spaces.” All participants will receive a Zoom conferencing link in the confirmation email and again in the weekly email reminders.
Register online by clicking the button below. A credit card is required. Please read the conditions of enrolment before registering.
Register Online for Windows on Theology: Understanding Sacred Spaces
Register by mail by downloading the registration form and completing by hand. Enclose cheque payable to “Regis College” and mail to Regis College, 100 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2Z5.
Download Registration Form
Explore the intricate interplay between climate change, science, and theology. Discover how these three areas of inquiry are not only critical topics of our time but also serve as powerful dialogical partners that contribute to human meaning, resilience, and the sustainability of our shared planet.
October 1, 2024: Introducing the Dialogue
Presenters: RSM Professor Gerard Ryan, SJ, and Leif Castren (DoSER Program Associate)
November 5: Indigenous Ethics
Presenters: John Borrows (Professor of Law and the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law) and RSM Professor Hilda Koster
December 3: Mental Health
Presenters: RSM Professor Desmond Buhagar, SJ, and RSM Professor and President of Regis College Gordon Rixon, SJ
February 4: Public Health
Presenters: Professor Michael Rozier, SJ (Department Chair of Health Management and Policy, Saint Louis University) and RSM Professor John Berkman
March 4: Wildlife Ecology and Forest Preservation
Presenters: Professor Patrick James (John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto) and RSM Professor Colleen Shantz
April 8: Appreciating the Dialogue
Presenters: RSM Professor Gerard Ryan, SJ, and Dr. Katy Hinman (DoSER Program Director)
This course is offered as a hybrid course. Participants who wish to attend in-person will gather in Regis College St. Joseph Chapel. Participants who wish to attend virtually will use the Zoom link provided. The Zoom link can be used for all six classes of “Science, Climate Change, and Theology: A Dialogue.” All participants will receive a Zoom conferencing link in the confirmation email and again in the weekly email reminders.
Register online by clicking the button below. A credit card is required. Please read the conditions of enrolment before registering.
Register Online for Windows on Theology: Science, Climate Change, and Theology: A DialogueRegister by mail by downloading the registration form and completing by hand. Enclose cheque payable to “Regis College” and mail to Regis College, 100 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2Z5.
Download Registration Form
Five Wednesdays in Lent, from March 12, 2025 to April 9.Join Sister Gill Goulding, CJ, for a series of engaging tea-time conversations over Lent, delving into the theological foundations of the 2023-24 Synod on Synodality and how we can carry forward the synodal journey beyond the October 2024 session. With her tea in hand, Sister Gill will guide participants through the Synod’s roots in Vatican II, explore the key themes of recent Synodal Assemblies, and invite reflection on how we, as the body of Christ and a synodal Church, can embrace the synodal process in our everyday lives.
March 12, 2025: A Re-appropriation of Vatican II
March 19, 2025: The Voices of the People of God
March 26, 2025: Synodal Assemblies I & II and Their Key Questions
April 2, 2025: The 21st Century Synodal Church
April 9, 2025: How do we continue the process?
This course is offered as a hybrid course. Participants who wish to attend in-person will gather in Regis College St. Joseph Chapel. Participants who wish to attend virtually will use the Zoom link provided a few days in advance of the first meeting. The Zoom link can be used for all five classes of “‘Onwards & Upwards!’ – The Synodal Process Beyond October 2024”
Register online by clicking the button below. A credit card is required. Please read the conditions of enrolment before registering.
Register Online for Onwards & Upwards! – The Synodal Process Beyond October 2024Register by mail by downloading the registration form and completing by hand. Enclose cheque payable to “Regis College” and mail to Regis College, 100 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2Z5.
Download Registration FormThe course draws on the distinction between mondalisation (transnational cultural pluralism) and globalisation (global monocultural hegemony) to explore the roles of religion and faith in discovering humanity’s higher purpose and addressing systemic injustice. Focused through discussion of regional theologies in Asia and Africa and world-wide indigenous movements, the course engages interreligious dialogue to heighten awareness of encounter and social reconciliation. The discussion of indigeneity addresses the experience of residential schools in Canada.
The Psalms have long been a major source of prayer for the Jewish and Christian communities alike. Why do they remain so contemporary and relevant? What makes them so moving and at times unnerving as well? This 8-week online course delves into the mysteries, the challenges, and the beauty of the Psalms as a source for prayer and theological reflection.
Today’s Christians are called to walk with a wounded world whose culture has become increasingly uncivil and polarized. Resources drawn from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, as well as from the Society of Jesus’s reflection on its mission oriented to justice and reconciliation in service of the faith, offer both a path to personal conversion and tools for accompanying our fellow travelers and offering Christ’s healing.
Colleagues from across the University of Toronto and beyond reflect on the relationships among art, justice, theology, and the sacred.
September 20 – Timothy Schmalz, Reflections on “Let the Oppressed Go Free.”
September 27 – Sean Mulrooney, Visio Divina in the 21st Century.
October 4 – Walter Deller, A Splendid Fragment: J.S. Bach’s opening Chorus for BWV 50, Cantata for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.
October 11 – Lesley Higgins, But Where Does Hopkins Take Us?
October 18 – Gilles Mongeau, S.J., Recovering the Body as Sacrament: Aquinas at the Roots of Modern Dance.
October 25 – James Bird, Language and Shape in the Dene Language.
November 1 – Katharine Lochnan, The Sublime, The Beautiful and the Industrial Revolution: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Pollution.
November 8 – John Dadosky, Bringing Beauty Back into Art.
November 15 – Gordon Rixon, S.J., Agency, Providence, and Beauty: Makoto Fujimura’s Nihonga Slow Art.
From the moment that Pope Francis announced his name after the papal election, it was clear that the reform of the church would be central to his papal agenda. The Lord had told Francis of Assisi, “Repair my Church,” and Francis would attempt to do just that. The floorplan for Francis for this repair would be a missionary church in which all are called to be “missionary disciples.” This course will examine how Pope Francis is accomplishing his goal.
Professor Gordon Rixon, SJ, President-Designate of Regis College, identifies the resources of Ignatian mystical spirituality and contemporary narrative theory to shape liberating religious stories that contribute to social transformation in a post-secular context. The course engages contemporary social theory to address issues of racism and other forms of systematic injustice and introduces transdisciplinary approach to ecological, social, cultural, and ecclesial reconciliation.
Humanity currently faces an ecological crisis of unprecedented magnitude. As Pope Francis notes, this crisis is a manifestation of a deeper crisis of modernity that includes “ethical, cultural, and spiritual” dimensions. We are all called to heal relationships between ourselves and the wider Earth community. We need not only transformed technologies, policies, and economics to do so, but also a practical and ethical know-how. Ecological wisdom capable of discerning a path towards just and loving relationships is paramount.
Although the Old Testament is a collection of written works spanning many centuries, there is a common thread uniting all its books. It is a continual account of God’s call, the imperfect response of human beings, and God’s overwhelming compassion and mercy. There is a constant tension between the call to love and serve God and others, and the all too human tendency towards selfishness. Throughout the many instances of human failure, God is faithful. The spiritual journey of the Old Testament imparts wisdom that is both human and divine. We will journey through the Old Testament with the accompaniment of the rabbis and the Church Fathers.
This journey examines the story of the Christian faith in the place where it all began. Many scholars consider the land of Israel the fifth Gospel. Immersing yourself in this land will bring you closer to the history, archeology, anthropology, culture, people and politics that spans over thousands of years. Israel is the Holy Land; a country where you will see the Bible come to life in ways that will touch your life today. Expect a Blessing!
Storied rationality, metaphors and symbols, the knowing of the sensing body, the passions, the senses, movement as rationality, approaches to the paschal mystery… all coming together as practical reason moving us out of suffering into flourishing, now and forever. This 6-week course explored an uncommon meaning of rationality, namely, the logic of movement toward the good in terms of one’s sensed bodily vitality.
Euthanasia. Physician-Assisted Death. Withdrawing Treatment. With the rise of medical technology and the recent legalization of medically assisted death in Canada, the “ethics” of dying can seem daunting. This course examined ethical issues in end-of-life care and draw on relevant Catholic Church Teaching
for guidance.
This course surveyed some important authors on the topic of love: St. Paul, C.S. Lewis, Rosemary Haughton, Erich Fromm, Rollo May, Robert Johnson, Scott Peck, Bernard Lonergan and Buddhist perspectives.
This course invited students into the way of doing theology practiced by the Fathers of the Church, so that our contexts and situations may be lit by the same fire which animated their own. The Fathers, almost without exception, were pastors. Their theology, therefore, is fundamentally one of encounter and relationship. Looking to the Fathers helps us to discover what it means for us to be bearers of the Tradition today, so that we can more adequately and humbly appropriate the task of mercy to which we have all been called.
St. Paul spent much of his life travelling over land and sea, spreading the Good News. The ‘In the Footsteps of Paul’ study tour will follow Paul’s steps beginning at the crossroads of three continents on the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus, then travelling on to the mythical Islands of Malta and continuing on to “Roma Aeterna” the eternal city of Rome and beyond.
In Cyprus we will step back in time with visits to prehistoric settlements, Roman mosaics and villas, Tombs of the Kings, Churches, UNESCO sites and glorious beaches. We will travel along the coast to Paphos as Saul did before he became Paul.
In Malta, we will stroll on meandering narrow streets, visit medieval towers, and the oldest known human structures in the world. We will visit St. Paul’s Island where in 60 C.E. Paul was shipwrecked on his way to Rome. The welcome he received is described in Acts 28: ‘After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The natives showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us round it.’
Italy will be the final country on the tour as we follow Paul to Rome where he died after years of imprisonment. Highlights are ancient ruins that evoke the power of the former Roman Empire including Vatican City, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes, and much more in Rome.
‘Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things’ Phil. 4:8
Regis College is located at 100 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, near the corner of Queen’s Park Crescent East. Regis College is on the 94 Wellesley TTC bus route and a short walk (south) from the Museum subway station. Public parking is available in the University of St. Michael’s College parking lot on St. Joseph Street, one block north of Regis College. The venue is accessible.
For more information about the Windows on Theology Continuous Learning Series, please contact regis.communications@utoronto.ca or call 416-922-5474 x231.
Before registering, please read the conditions of enrolment.
For assistance in registering, please contact regis.communications@utoronto.ca or call 416-922-5474 x 229.
