Mystagogy
Our mystagogy course is an opportunity for newer Christians – and those seeking to re-new their engagement with the Faith – to come together over some classic Christian texts, varying in subject and register.
There will be five sessions through the autumn of 2023, involving discussion over a simple supper at Number 6, Margaret Street, after the 6.30pm Mass. We will wrap up by 9pm.
The expectation is that those who sign up commit to attendance at all the sessions – we’d like this to involve a sense of momentum and growing together as we study different areas of Christian life, mindful too of our identity as Anglo-Catholics within the Church.
Course outline
Thursday 21st Sept 2023, 7.00 pm – St Augustine
As our opening text, on Thursday, September 21st, I’ve chosen the Confessions of St Augustine – hardly in need of an introduction – and a work of which many will have some knowledge. We will focus on Books VIII-XI in Henry Chadwick’s English translation, and I hope this remarkable spiritual autobiography will both be fruitful in itself as well as setting us up for our own journey together over the weeks to come.
Tuesday 3rd October 2023, 7.00 pm – New Asceticism
On Tuesday, October 3rd, we’ll be looking at something altogether more modern – Sarah Coakley’s The New Asceticism (Bloomsbury 2015, Introduction; chs 3-5). “A new and serious reflection on ascetic theology…forging a new ascetical vision founded in the disciplines of prayer and attention”. Professor Coakley addresses some of the contentious theological debates over sexuality and gender, drawing on sources from the Church Fathers – especially Gregory of Nyssa – to Freud and Jung.
Thursday 19th October 2023, 7.00 pm – Merrily on High
“It may be trivial, but I hope it is illuminated by love – and I think I have made myself as ridiculous as anyone”. Colin Stephenson’s Anglo-Catholic memoir Merrily on High (Canterbury Press) may represent a shift in intensity from our last title – but will hopefully provide us with an entertaining starting point from which to begin thinking about the history of the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. This session will take place on Thursday, October 19th.
Tuesday 7th November 2023, 7.00 pm – The Spirit of the Liturgy
On our penultimate evening together, Tuesday, November 7th, we’ll be joined by the Rev’d Dr Jeremy Haselock, who has kindly agreed to introduce us to that seminal work of liturgical scholarship, The Shape of the Liturgy (Dom Gregory Dix, 1945; reprinted by Bloomsbury, 2015). Not without its signs of age, nor its critics, it is nonetheless a wonderfully written and compendious milestone in the field, by this monk of the Anglican Benedictine community of Nashdom. We’re going to focus on chapters 4; 5; 9 and 16.
Wednesday 22nd November 2023, 7.00 pm – Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhill, poet, novelist and mystic will be the subject of our final session, on Wednesday, November 22nd. I’m delighted that we will be joined by the Rev’d Dr Ayla Lepine, Associate Rector at St James’, Piccadilly, and the Rev’d Dr Barry Orford, both of whom are enthusiastic experts in this sometimes underappreciated Anglican laywoman. Our text is Practical Mysticism, widely available second-hand or online here: https://archive.org/details/PracticalMysticism.
