Windows on Theology – Regis College’s continuous learning series – offers non-credit courses of six to eight sessions on topical issues in scripture, church history, pastoral studies, and theology.
Interested members of the public of all ages and life stages are encouraged to register.

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Click here to download the Understanding Sacred Space course outline

Throughout history, architecture has played a major role in giving tangible, meaningful expression to a particular culture’s beliefs, values, hopes, and aspirations.  Arguably, this is most profoundly expressed in the sacred spaces that we build.  This course will explore the nature of sacred space, how we define it, how we understand it, and how it influences our own worship experience in the contemporary context. By examining Western Religious Architecture from the pre-Christian era to the 21^st century we will explore how the style of Christian Architecture evolved in response to major external influences, and changing ways in which we came to understand our relationship to God and Creation.  Participants will also learn to understand their own places of worship and how they either support or detract from evoking a sense of the sacred, the liturgy, and sacramental life of the parish.

Themes by Week

1. Interrupting the Profane: This initial class will explore the nature of sacred architecture as “space set aside” from the everyday realm for the purposes of religious rituals and observances.  What are the defining characteristics that distinguish sacred space from the quotidian and provide access to the spiritual, ineffable, and transcendent realms?  Referencing actual examples, we will explore sacred space as centre, as meeting point, as microcosm of the heavenly realm, and as immanent-transcendent presence, the four functions that define sacred space according to theologian Harold W. Turner in his book From Temple to Meeting House: The Phenomenology and Theology of Places of Worship.
2. Meaning in Western Religious Architecture: “The Pre-Christian Era”: Throughout history, architecture has played a major role in giving tangible, meaningful expression to a culture’s beliefs, values, hopes, and aspirations.  Arguably, this is most evident in the sacred spaces that we build.  Drawing from seminal work by Christian Norberg-Schultz, we will explore the meaning of sacred space within cultures dating from the early Egyptian dynasties, Greek, Roman, early Christian, and Romanesque, eras. 
3. Meaning in Western Religious Architecture: “From the Romanesque to the Rococo”: This week we will continue our historical exploration of western sacred architecture from the Romanesque through the Early and Late Gothic periods, the Renaissance, Reformation, Baroque, and Rococo periods and how the changes reflected external influences and evolving understandings of our relationship to God and Creation.
4. Sacred Space in the 21st Century: This week, we will explore the design of sacred space in the context of the 20^th century. How did the tenets of modern architecture and the international Style affect the design of Christian sacred space?  Examples will be drawn from leading architects of the 20^th century.  Did a defining style of western sacred architecture emerge in the 20^th century.
5. Sacred Space in the Contemporary Canadian Context: The first half of the class will examine “Sacrosanctum Consilium”, Vatican II’s Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, and its influence on “Our Place of Worship” and “Built of Living Stones”, documents published by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and their American counterparts to assist parishes in the design and renovation of worship spaces.  Examples will be drawn from the presenter’s 25 years of experience designing worship spaces for parishes within the Roman Catholic tradition and other Christian denominations.  The remaining time will be devoted to exploring class participant’s own worship spaces with the goal of providing greater understanding and insight into how those spaces either support or detract from a sense of the sacred through engagement of the senses, the liturgical action that unfolds within those spaces, and the sacramental life of the faith community.
6. Sacred Space in the 21^st Century: This final class will examine the context of sacred space design in the 21^st century, exploring influences from eco-theology, indigenous cultures, other faith traditions, digital technologies, and the impacts on those who have suffered the loss of sacred places through conflict and migration.

About the Instructor

Click here to download Roberto Chiotti’s bio

Roberto Chiotti, BES, BARCH, MTS, OAA, FRAIC, LEED® AP, CAHP, APT
Principal, Larkin Architect Limited

Roberto Chiotti is a Toronto architect and founding partner of Larkin Architect Limited, an award-winning firm specializing in the design of Sacred Space for the past 25 years. This work is further informed by his Master of Theological Studies degree from University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, with a specialty in Theology and Ecology granted by the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology at St. Michael’s.  With over 150 building projects completed for religious communities and parishes across Ontario, Roberto has developed significant expertise in liturgical design, facilitating the design process for sacred space, giving expression to theological imperatives within architectural form, and the integration of sustainable design principles for sacred space.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and has served on the Archdiocese of Toronto Sacred Art and Architecture Committee, the Liturgy Commission for the St. Paul of the Cross, Passionist Province, and currently serves on the board for the Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality Forum (ACSF) where he has co-authored the ACSF’s Declaration of Transcendent Human Habitat.

Roberto has been published in international journals and has been invited to write, teach, and speak extensively on the topics of Sacred Space, Architectural Heritage, Sustainable Design, and the Cosmological Response to the Ecological Crisis as it relates to Architecture and Education at universities, colleges, religious conferences, architecture conferences, and professional organizations throughout Canada and the United States.  His firm’s recently completed renovation work at the Church of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph has elevated this historic monument to Basilica status and has attracted both national and provincial heritage awards.

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Click here to download the Ecological Wisdom course outline

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.

The six weeks of Ecological Wisdom: Righting our Relationships with Each Other and the Earth will explore the nature and causes of the ecological crisis. We will reflect on the values, attitudes, and spirituality needed to fruitfully address ecological challenges in the light of faith. Topics will draw on insights from economics, ethics, science, and theology alongside the lived experience of ecological wisdom. Particular reference will be made throughout the course to both the Papal encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015) and The Tao of Liberation (Hathaway & Boff, 2009).

Themes by Week

1. Seeking wisdom in a time of crisis: What is happening to our common home and why is wisdom important?
2. Roots of the ecological crisis: History, economics, technology, values, and worldviews.
3. Rethinking relationships, transformation, and the role of the human: Insights from physics, systems perspectives, the Gaia theory, T. Berry’s evolutionary cosmology, and reconceptualizing science (Panikkar and Indigenous perspectives).
4. Reimagining our relationship to each other and the Earth: Ecological ethics, integral ecology, the Earth Charter, and the Gospel of Creation.
5. Ecological spirituality: Overcoming denial and despair (insights from the Beatitudes, Buddhism and the Work that Reconnects), ecological conversion, the experience of ecological wisdom, and spiritual practices.
6. Ecological wisdom in practice: Education, transformative action, regenerative perspectives, and the role of faith communities.

About the Instructor

Dr. Mark Hathaway, PhD is Associate Director of the Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice. Together with Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, he wrote The Tao of Liberation: Exploring the Ecology of Transformation (Orbis, 2009). Mark’s doctoral research examines the lived experience of ecological wisdom and the transformative learning that may cultivate such wisdom. Mark has taught courses at the University of Toronto, the Earth Charter, and a variety of Latin American universities.