Creation Spirituality & Environmental Justice Certificate Program

Program description:

This program will provide professional training for those involved in promoting care for our common home, Mother Earth, and award a professional certificate in environmental justice for those completing the program over one year to eighteen months.  Courses will involve study of Pope Francis' seminal document, Laudato Si’, and lectures by specialists in the fields of climate justice and creation spirituality. Participants will study and discuss an interfaith understanding of nature-derived spirituality as first developed by Native peoples in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They will explore the role of the arts in approaching nature from a contemplative perspective rather the exploitative model that has led to the present environmental crisis.  Finally, students will learn sustainable strategies to heal Mother Earth, and to develop rituals that can become part of the spiritual communities in which they are members.  Each student will be assigned a mentor who will assist them in designing an environmental education project for a school, neighborhood or faith-based organization.  Implementation of the project and identification of the participants and sponsoring group or organization will comprise the capstone course for this professional certificate program.

Program requirements: 

1) In 18 months or less students will complete four courses from among GMU's courses that pertain to its focus on creation spirituality, environmental justice, and their interaction; and complete CS301, an environmental education project design that will serve as the final project in fulfillment of the requirements toward the professional certificate.

2) One foundational course is required:  CS300: Laudato Si’: Pope Francis’ Call to Care for Our Common Home.  This is a synchronous course that will include Zoom sessions and be offered to all program enrollees at once.  The first such Zoom lecture will take place this Monday, June 8th; the final session will occur on Monday, August 31st.  See course syllabus for more details.

For the other 3 courses, students may choose from among the following independent study courses:

TH509 Ecological Theology

TH516 Evolutionary Theology

TH517 Spiritual Ecology

TH542  Empowered by the Living Light

TH543 Teilhard de Chardin: Insights of an Evolutionary Mystic

TH575 Mysticism in Christian Tradition

TH580 Creation Spirituality

TH646 Journey Into the Spiritual Center

DR913 Art & Mysticism

These are asynchronous, independent study courses to be taken at the students' own pace; they may, however, include some Zoom sessions.

They are located in the GMU Classroom as follows:

TH509:  Under Masters Level Courses/Ethics & Moral Theology

TH516, TH517, TH542, TH543, TH 575, TH580, and TH646:  Under Masters Level Courses/Spirituality 

DR913:  Under Doctoral Level Courses/Spirituality

Students may take any of these courses concurrently with CS300; however, GMU strongly recommends completing CS300 before proceeding to these other courses. 

CS300 and the three independent study courses must be completed within 15 months of beginning the CSEJ Certificate Program; that is, by September 8, 2021. 

3) CS301: CSEJ Certificate Program Project Design

Design of an environmental education project for a school, neighborhood or faith-based organization will be the capstone course and project for this professional certificate. Work on the project may begin as soon as all coursework is completed.  Students will be assigned a mentor who will assist them in the design of the project and identification of the participants as well as sponsoring group or organization. (You'll have the option of drawing upon the project design described in your final paper from the Laudato Si' course).

CS301 must be completed by December 8, 2021.