Course Catalogue 2025-2026

Each SPE Practicum provides students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary for providing competent spiritually integrated psychotherapy. The course explores both theoretical and applied aspects of SPE. It is located at the intersection of the theology of caring, grief and loss, and social sciences. The course emphasizes multidimensional assessments and teaches interventions that are spiritual, therapeutic, supportive, and/or educational. Professional identity and professional ethics as well as the place of spiritual care and counselling in Canada are also examined. The course highlights significant aspects of the theologies of psycho-spiritual care and therapy.

Each SPE Practicum provides students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary for providing competent spiritually integrated psychotherapy. The course explores both theoretical and applied aspects of SPE. It is located at the intersection of the theology of caring, grief and loss, and social sciences. The course emphasizes multidimensional assessments and teaches interventions that are spiritual, therapeutic, supportive, and/or educational. Professional identity and professional ethics as well as the place of spiritual care and counselling in Canada are also examined. The course highlights significant aspects of the theologies of psycho-spiritual care and therapy.

For over thirty years, “Nothing about us without us” has been the cry of resistance from disability activists worldwide, yet disabled, neurodivergent and mentally ill people are rarely consulted or collaborated with regarding the policies, treatments and caregiving that will directly affect their bodyminds. This has led to ableist, neurotypical, and “sanist” theories and practices being normalized within the fields of medicine, psychiatry, theology, and psychotherapy. Whether or not a psychotherapist or faith leader is disabled, neurodivergent, or living with mental distress themselves, they are still often trained in models of psychotherapeutic and spiritual care that arise from and/or replicate ableist and neurotypical cultural norms to varying degrees of damage for disabled and neurodivergent individuals. This course engages with “mad” and “crip” frameworks to interrogate ableist, neurotypical, and sanist theories and practices, and to equip psychotherapists and spiritual care providers to provide treatment for disabled, neurodivergent, and mentally ill clients in more culturally appropriate ways. It also equips spiritual caregivers who may have internalized ableism and neurotypical normalizing tendencies to move deeper into their own self-understanding for this work. The course will invite those with lived experience of disability, neurodiversity and mental distress to apply their lived experience, learn to maintain appropriate boundaries and engage Safe and Effective Use of Self (SEUS).

Inspiring and profound are terms often attributed to the theology of von Balthasar. Benedict XVI said of his work, "His theological reflection maintains intact, to this day, a profound timeliness and leads many to penetrate ever more into the profundity of the mystery of faith". This course begins an exploration of his work. There is consideration of the Trilogy: Herrlichkeit, Theo-Drama and Theo-Logic; the influence of Ignatius Loyola and Adrienne von Speyr; and the place of Mary. Not a course for the faint-hearted, von Balthasar's work is at times dense and complex but the rewards are beyond price.

Each Clinical Practicum (A and B) provides students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary for providing competent spiritually integrated psychotherapy. Course A provides the basis for course B. The course explores both theoretical and applied aspects of Supervised Pastoral Education (SPE). It is located at the intersection of the theology of caring, grief and loss, and social sciences. The course emphasizes multidimensional assessments and teaches interventions that are spiritual, therapeutic, supportive, and/or educational. Professional identity and professional ethics as well as the place of spiritual care and counselling in Canada are also examined. The course highlights significant aspects of the theologies of psycho-spiritual care and therapy.

Each Clinical Practicum (A and B) provides students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary for providing competent spiritually integrated psychotherapy. Course B builds on course A. The course explores both theoretical and applied aspects of Supervised Pastoral Education (SPE). It is located at the intersection of the theology of caring, grief and loss, and social sciences. The course emphasizes multidimensional assessments and teaches interventions that are spiritual, therapeutic, supportive, and/or educational. Professional identity and professional ethics as well as the place of spiritual care and counselling in Canada are also examined. The course highlights significant aspects of the theologies of psycho-spiritual care and therapy.

Each Clinical Practicum (A and B) provides students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary for providing competent spiritually integrated psychotherapy. Course B builds on course A. The course explores both theoretical and applied aspects of Supervised Pastoral Education (SPE). It is located at the intersection of the theology of caring, grief and loss, and social sciences. The course emphasizes multidimensional assessments and teaches interventions that are spiritual, therapeutic, supportive, and/or educational. Professional identity and professional ethics as well as the place of spiritual care and counselling in Canada are also examined. The course highlights significant aspects of the theologies of psycho-spiritual care and therapy.

This course will engage the questions of interreligious dialogue and comparative theology on the theology on the theological issues of redemption and salvation by comparing the work of some key Christian thinkers with themes in Buddhism. We will also engage comparative questions such as desire, imitation, prayer, mediation and responses to suffering and violence.

The Acts of the Apostles is our main source of information about the first Christian decades. It covers the movement's initial efforts to regroup following the death of Jesus, as well as its earliest expansion into the Mediterranean world beyond Judea. In this course, we will read through the Acts and reflect upon both what it tells us about Christian origins and also its continuing relevance for contemporary Christianity.

In this course, students will explore the historical debates and the doctrinal formulations of the seven ecumenical councils (325-787 AD). This course will address the development of fundamental themes in trinity, Christology, ecclesiology, sacramental theology, and the theology of iconography. Students will be introduced to the historical context of these debates and attend to the relationship between the early church and its relationship to secular authority. The course will further examine the theological method of early and late antique Christian thinkers that gave rise to these doctrines as well explore the enduring contribution of these conciliar debates for ecumenical dialogue and contemporary theology.

In this course, students will explore the historical debates and the doctrinal formulations of the seven ecumenical councils (325-787 AD). This course will address the development of fundamental themes in trinity, Christology, ecclesiology, sacramental theology, and the theology of iconography. Students will be introduced to the historical context of these debates and attend to the relationship between the early church and its relationship to secular authority. The course will further examine the theological method of early and late antique Christian thinkers that gave rise to these doctrines as well explore the enduring contribution of these conciliar debates for ecumenical dialogue and contemporary theology.

Feminist theology centers the experiences of women and others who experience oppression and marginalization in the Church and in the world; these experiences then are put into conversation with the teachings and practices of the Church, both locally and globally. For more than a half-century, Catholic feminist theologians have critiqued the gaps in Catholic systematic theologies and have argued for reinterpretations that highlight the flourishing of women. This course will explore a selection of contemporary Catholic theologians who, building on established feminist theologies, are expanding our vision of what the flourishing of marginalized peoples, especially those who identify as women, can look like in the mid-twenty-first century. Readings will concentrate on feminist theological works published in the last ten years. A robust schedule of readings and a seminar conversation about those readings will form the backbone of the course.