Adult RE Offering from Rev. Bob:
“The Stories of our Lives”

This Adult Religious Exploration course looks at the stories that impact our lives – sacred stories, meaningful stories, challenging stories. Class participants will be invited to read, on their own time, some of the world’s great texts (this class is not graded and offers no credits and no shaming, so homework really is totally optional!). Stories we will explore together may include any of the following:

• Stories of our beginnings: Genesis, sacred stories from various traditions
• Stories of morality: the Bhagavad Gita, John Rawls, Lord of the Rings & Harry Potter
• Stories of our universe: relativistic physics, chaos theory
• Stories of the emergent self: The Color Purple, Joseph Campbell, Precious, Hamlet
• Stories of Love: Pride and Prejudice, Upanishads
• Stories of Mystery and Relationship: The Gospels, Cloud of Unknowing
• National Stories: A People’s History, These Truths

Clearly, there will be a lot of (entirely optional!) reading. But the classes themselves will not be merely a book review – principally, we will use the texts as a lens at which to look at the sacred story of our own lives. What does it mean to be human? What are the possibilities of a human life? How do we make sense of it all?

This is not a lecture series. I hope to employ a variety of pedagogical methods, to get folks to talk to one another and engage on a deep level.

The class meets on Monday evenings twice a month, October through May.

The FIRST MONDAY of each month is ZOOM ONLY. 6:30 – 8 pm.

The THIRD MONDAY of each month is IN PERSON AT USH. 6:30 – 8:00 pm

Please note these are two DIFFERENT sessions, on the same topic. The Zoom session is more introductory and conversational. In the second session, we explore the topic in greater depth, using different modes of participation. These sessions are not hybrid – meaning if you want to attend only in person or only on Zoom, unfortunately you won’t be able to attend both sessions. But there’s no problem with only attending once a month.

The course is free, but registration is required to help me communicate with the class better. Once you register, you’ll receive a syllabus and a schedule with locations and Zoom links.

When I was wondering what to offer in Adult RE this year, I though about what I would most like to take, as a participant. This is what I came up with, and I’m trying it out for the first time. So needless to say, I’m very excited about it! Any questions , please feel free to ask me anything. Thanks!

Gratefully yours,

Rev. Bob