Class dates: Wednesdays, November 4, 18, December 2, 9, 16   (5 weeks)

Class time: 10:00 am to 11:30 am

Location: Online (via Zoom)

Shakers are known for their furniture, the Amish for their horse-drawn buggies, and Trappist monks for their strawberry preserves. But behind the chairs, buggies, and jams exist counter-cultural communities devoted to God. Their focus on spiritual life reimagines the place of work, material goods, and community in the way we live. In this course we’ll examine the role of prayer, work, simplicity, stability, and separation in the Amish, Shaker, and Trappist traditions. We’ll compare practices across communities and examine current interest in applying them to the social challenges of consumerism, technology, loneliness, and economic inequality. Can secular society appropriate these spiritual values without changing their essence?

Can one really live in, but not of, the world?

Instructor: Kathleen Fisher has taught for WISE since 2019, offering courses in religion and spirituality through a variety of poets, philosophers, religious figures, and historical texts. She holds a Ph.D. in Medieval History and Religion from Boston University. After a long teaching career in Theology at Assumption University, Kathleen now lives in Chapel Hill, NC where she also lectures in Elon University's Life@Elon program.