Course Catalogue 2026-2027

This course builds on the content of KNP1512, Foundations in Counselling and Spiritual Care, and has been designed to prepare students for practicums that integrate spiritual care and/or psychospiritual therapy. Students will gain an understanding of the impact of spiritual struggles and how spiritual listening and engagement with spiritual practices and beliefs can foster healing and wholeness. Students will be exposed to theological perspectives on spiritual care, the history of care of the soul, and ideas on the experience of spiritual pain as a force for transformation or despair. The themes of professional formation and communication styles will be discussed. Students will experience a variety of contemplative spiritual healing practices such as writing a lament, walking the labyrinth, and the practice of awe. The second half of the course will review and build on skills covered in core MPS courses with a focus on experiential learning to further prepare the student for their practicum. Skills may include but are not limited to building (and repairing) the therapeutic alliance, spiritual assessment, clinical documentation, engaging in spiritually integrated psychotherapy.

As an introduction to the major mental disorders, this course aims to prepare students for working with clients with serious mental health problems in private, institutional and community settings. The course focuses on a biopsychosocial and spiritual understanding of mental health and well-being. Utilizing the holistic approach to mental health, this course will explore classifications and symptomatology of the more severe and chronic forms of psychiatric disorder, their etiology and nature, and their diagnosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5) will be used as a reference point. The students will also be introduced to the critical influence of culture, class, race and ethnicity, religion, and social values of the individual, family, group, and social institutions in the assessment of mental health disorders. The course will critically review current classification systems and major theories regarding the nature of mental disorders, their diagnoses and etiologies, the treatment approaches available to help people in their recovery, and culturally relevant variables. As a result, the students will be able to critically utilize terminology and concepts in the DSM-5 and identify best practices in psychotherapy practice.

This course is an exploration of the following themes in the light of Christian revelation: creation, the human person, sin, grace, and eschatology.

This course is an exploration of the following themes in the light of Christian revelation: creation, the human person, sin, grace, and eschatology.

This course introduces Humanistic Buddhism as a modern Buddhist movement that integrates classical Buddhist wisdom with contemporary ethical, social, and cultural concerns. Drawing on Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese Buddhist traditions, especially Chan Buddhism, and informed by comparative philosophy and theology, the course examines how Buddhist concepts such as compassion, nonduality, emptiness, and moral cultivation are rearticulated for lived practice in the modern world. Particular attention is given to the thought and practice of Humanistic Buddhism as articulated by contemporary figures, including Hsing Yun, and its engagement with education, social responsibility, interreligious dialogue, and global ethics. Students will critically explore how Buddhist thought functions not only as doctrine, but as a transformative framework for personal formation and social engagement.

This course introduces Humanistic Buddhism as a modern Buddhist movement that integrates classical Buddhist wisdom with contemporary ethical, social, and cultural concerns. Drawing on Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese Buddhist traditions, especially Chan Buddhism, and informed by comparative philosophy and theology, the course examines how Buddhist concepts such as compassion, nonduality, emptiness, and moral cultivation are rearticulated for lived practice in the modern world. Particular attention is given to the thought and practice of Humanistic Buddhism as articulated by contemporary figures, including Hsing Yun, and its engagement with education, social responsibility, interreligious dialogue, and global ethics. Students will critically explore how Buddhist thought functions not only as doctrine, but as a transformative framework for personal formation and social engagement.

This course focuses on personal contemplative prayer as essential for our relationship with God and the soil out of which healthy and effective ministry grows. The course covers Biblical teaching on prayer; the contemplative tradition arising from the early desert fathers and mothers; spirituality, theology and psychology of prayer; and various Christian traditions of prayer including lectio divina, Ignatian prayer, other forms of scripture prayer, centering prayer, Christian meditation, and the awareness examen. The course concludes with suggestions for planting and growing a prayer-based parish ministry. The course is offered at the SSJD convent in North York.

This course explores the relationship between religion, health, healing, and community well-being through a decolonial lens. Students examine how Indigenous, African, and Abrahamic traditions understand health not simply as a medical or biological condition, but as an expression of cosmology, relationality, land-based practice, and spiritual continuity. Drawing on public health frameworks, Indigenous health models, place-based epistemologies, and decolonial critique, the course investigates how colonialism in the Americas and Africa reshaped spiritual and medical landscapes—marginalizing traditional healing practices, severing communities from land and ceremony, and creating enduring health inequities. Through the methodological thread of storying, students analyze how communities narrate illness, suffering, resilience, and healing; how religion functions as a social determinant of health; and how the colonial vs. communal gaze shapes health-seeking behaviour, public policy, and collective flourishing. The course equips students to envision what healing and community flourishing looks like beyond empire-building aspirations—rooted in cosmology, community, and the interconnectedness of all life.

This course explores the relationship between religion, health, healing, and community well-being through a decolonial lens. Students examine how Indigenous, African, and Abrahamic traditions understand health not simply as a medical or biological condition, but as an expression of cosmology, relationality, land-based practice, and spiritual continuity. Drawing on public health frameworks, Indigenous health models, place-based epistemologies, and decolonial critique, the course investigates how colonialism in the Americas and Africa reshaped spiritual and medical landscapes—marginalizing traditional healing practices, severing communities from land and ceremony, and creating enduring health inequities. Through the methodological thread of storying, students analyze how communities narrate illness, suffering, resilience, and healing; how religion functions as a social determinant of health; and how the colonial vs. communal gaze shapes health-seeking behaviour, public policy, and collective flourishing. The course equips students to envision what healing and community flourishing looks like beyond empire-building aspirations—rooted in cosmology, community, and the interconnectedness of all life.

This course is a survey of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in their historical and religious background with attention to hermeneutics, the patristic exegetical heritage, and modern biblical studies. The Gospels and Acts will be read in their entirety, along with other early Christian texts and literature from the same period, commentaries by church fathers and writings by scholars and theologians through to our day. Students will explore these texts as among the most important literature of first-century Judaism, examining them within the wider corpus of Second Temple Jewish writings. The course will introduce critical tools and methodological approaches which make exegesis possible, encountering modern historical-critical methods as well as critiques and alternatives offered from narrative and other post-critical approaches. Patristic, mediaeval, Reformation, and contemporary interpretations will be placed in productive dialogue, allowing these diverse perspectives to counter-inform each other and effectively resource preaching and ministry today. Recent "within Judaism" scholarship will inform the course throughout.

This course is a survey of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in their historical and religious background with attention to hermeneutics, the patristic exegetical heritage, and modern biblical studies. The Gospels and Acts will be read in their entirety, along with other early Christian texts and literature from the same period, commentaries by church fathers and writings by scholars and theologians through to our day. Students will explore these texts as among the most important literature of first-century Judaism, examining them within the wider corpus of Second Temple Jewish writings. The course will introduce critical tools and methodological approaches which make exegesis possible, encountering modern historical-critical methods as well as critiques and alternatives offered from narrative and other post-critical approaches. Patristic, mediaeval, Reformation, and contemporary interpretations will be placed in productive dialogue, allowing these diverse perspectives to counter-inform each other and effectively resource preaching and ministry today. Recent "within Judaism" scholarship will inform the course throughout.

This course is a survey of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in their historical and religious background with attention to hermeneutics, the patristic exegetical heritage, and modern biblical studies. The Gospels and Acts will be read in their entirety, along with other early Christian texts and literature from the same period, commentaries by church fathers and writings by scholars and theologians through to our day. Students will explore these texts as among the most important literature of first-century Judaism, examining them within the wider corpus of Second Temple Jewish writings. The course will introduce critical tools and methodological approaches which make exegesis possible, encountering modern historical-critical methods as well as critiques and alternatives offered from narrative and other post-critical approaches. Patristic, mediaeval, Reformation, and contemporary interpretations will be placed in productive dialogue, allowing these diverse perspectives to counter-inform each other and effectively resource preaching and ministry today. Recent "within Judaism" scholarship will inform the course throughout.