Looking for a wild-and-crazy time at college? Don’t sign up for Justin McDaniel’s religious studies class.
The associate professor’s course on monastic life and asceticism gives students at the University of Pennsylvania a firsthand experience of what it’s like to be a monk.
At various periods during the semester, students must forego technology, coffee, physical human contact and certain foods. They’ll also have to wake up at 5 a.m. ”” without an alarm clock.
Not impressed. Where is the regular practice of prayer and christian spiritual training that is the reason for monasticism in the first place? Where is the discipline on focusing on Christ and God? This course seems to focus on the externals without the underlying spirituality that give rise to the externals.
How about a week in praying the hours and daily mass/communion?
I would be more impressed if they were required as part of the course to spend a week living in a monastery though I concede practical difficulties with regard to other courses.
The story stated that McDaniel is both Catholic and Buddhist. That is actually incorrect. He was brought up Catholic, and has seriously studied both Buddhism and Catholicism.
The story says, “An expert on Asian religions, he spent a portion of his post-undergraduate life nearly 20 years ago as a Buddhist monk in Thailand and Laos and says he’s both a practicing Buddhist and a practicing Catholic.”
Gag me with a spoon.
If I read correctly, the course seems to focus on works, separated from faith. That’s asceticism?
A week in a monestery, preferably contemplative, would be a better use of Spring Break than going to Florida, for lots of reasons.
I would really like to know what they are reading for the class. St John Climacus, perhaps? The Rule of St. Benedict? Some Thomas Merton, surely, although I suspect that teacher would lean toward the later Merton, who focused more on contemplative technique amenable to generic, if not syncretistic, religion.