The Psalms: Pathways for Spiritual Formation

Course Description

The Book of Psalms so resonates with the human condition that John Calvin described it as “an anatomy of all the parts of the soul.” The Psalter has also been described as a prayer book of the church, and it has served as such through the ages. Further, the church understands that Christ himself prayed these psalms and invites us to pray them in him.

This course embraces all of these positions but adds a focus on the means by which the Psalter contributes to the spiritual formation of those who prayerfully engage it. Along with immersive reading from the Psalms and from Christian writers across the centuries, this course considers modern understandings of how texts affect and shape readers. Insights from studies in memory, wonder, lament, 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.