The Psalms: Pathways for Spiritual Formation

The Psalter has been described as "an anatomy of all the parts of the soul" (Calvin) as it resonates with the human condition. The Psalter is also described as a prayer book of the Church and has resourced this practice through the ages. Further, the church understands Christ himself prayed these psalms and invites us to pray them in him. This course takes up these positions but additionally studies the means by which the Psalter spiritually forms those who prayerfully engage it. Along with immersive reading in the Psalter and Christian writers across the centuries, this course considers modern understandings of how texts affect and shape readers. Thus, the insights of studies in memory, wonder, lament and imprecation and more will open new considerations of how the Spirit works through the Word as the psalms are read and prayed. At its core, this course explores how a prayerful stance before the Psalter forms us in the responsive spiritual listening and freedom of the Christian life.