Network

Confluence is an alliance whose members are committed to exploring the interconnection between different traditions of meditative practice for people today.

Mission

By combining historical and contemporary approaches to meditation, we hope to enhance the practice of meditation within a variety of communities. We organise, interreligious dialogue events and academic and non-academic conferences on meditation. We develop programs and courses for use in educational settings and professional environments and undertake academic research on historical and contemporary issues related to meditation.

Courses

The Graduate Certificate in Teaching Meditation (GCTM) is designed for those seeking to learn the methods and skills of teaching meditation and meditative prayer in a variety of situations including primary and secondary schools, parishes, hospitals and other settings. The course includes the history and practice of meditation and lectio divina and provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their own spiritual gifts.

• AQF 08CRICOS N/A

  Graduate Certificate in Teaching Meditation
  Duration

  6 months full-time,
  Up to 2 years part-time

  Modes

  Classroom, Mixed, Online

  Colleges & Schools

  Available at 1 College/School

  The Graduate Certificate in Teaching Meditation is designed for those seeking to learn the methods and skills of teaching meditation and meditative prayer in a variety of situations including primary and secondary schools, parishes, hospitals and other settings. The course includes the history and practice of meditation and lectio divina and provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their own spiritual gifts.

  Course profile

The Graduate Certificate in Teaching Meditation is accredited by the Meditation Association of Australia. The Course fulfils the membership requirements for Meditation Australia. Please note that individual applicants for Meditation Australia membership must verify that they have completed a minimum of two years of personal meditation practice. 

Please note that individual applicants for MA membership must verify that they have completed a minimum of two years of personal meditation practice.

The Religion and Social Policy network brings theological insight into contemporary world issues and social policy debates—by stimulating research and engagement activity across the University and by building external partnerships.

Mission

The University formally launched Religion and Social Policy (RASP) on Thursday 8 December 2016 in Melbourne CBD.

Religion and Social Policy (RASP):

• promotes and undertakes research on the interaction between religion and society, and its policy implications
• encourages public conversation about the implications of religious social thinking, including its socio-economic, environmental, cultural and political aspects
• adopts an advocacy role about relevant areas of social policy
• engages in research for peer-reviewed journals and monographs
• draws academic resources within the University of Divinity into closer engagement with current public issues
• identifies and resources informed spokespeople to engage in public conversation in areas of their expertise
• develops partnerships among the Colleges of the University of Divinity; the churches, religious organisations and religious orders, their agencies and networks; organisations and individuals who share the network’s aims
• encourages, through collaboration with the Colleges, the teaching of specific units on religion and social policy.

Engage

RASP hosts and contributes to a number of public events during the year. Visit the University’s Vox (News and Events) website for information about public events coming up near you.

Members of RASP also regularly contribute to public commentary on current social policy issues. The University consists of eleven colleges representing a diverse range of Christian traditions so most articles will reflect the perspective of our members but in engagement with a range of other perspectives.

_{Disclaimer: The University of Divinity does not accept any responsibility or liability for the opinions expressed in these pages.}

Research

Under the overall focus of Flourishing in a Fragile World, these themes help RASP focus its research efforts but are not exclusive. They will be regularly informed by Indigenous, inter-generational, gender diverse, multicultural and multi-religious sources and dialogue.

Ecology

Theologically, our earthly home (oikos) or Creation is intrinsically ‘good’, beautiful and purposeful, abundant yet finite. This sits in tension with a rising sense of the fragility, scarcity and exploitation of these qualities. Belief in nature as infinite raw material for utilitarian quantification and commodification threatens Creation. It is urgent that humankind connects a theology of cosmic reconciliation with the practical urgency of the plight of the earth and the poor, as victims of violence and injustice. The positive reception to Pope Francis’ lyrical Laudato Si’ encourages us to develop further the Yarra Institute’s religiously-based research into social policy for the flourishing of creation.

Economy

Economy also comes from the root oikos, both linked to and enveloped by ecology. It is not reducible to mere economic prosperity or growth (GDP). RASP encourages research into a more social and ecological economy which sustains a dynamic relationship between the two dimensions. This will be expressed in two primary projects: Critical turning or crisis points in the history and future of capitalism; The increasingly global phenomenon of precarious or fragile work threatening sustainability of current models of work, family and community life.

Economy Research by RASP Members

2019

• Podcast | Hard Work Never Killed Anyone, Part I: Subduing Death, Modernity’s Heroic Intent
  In this episode of Ergasia, we begin an exploration of the book Hard Work Never Killed Anyone: How the Idolisation of Work Sustains this Deadly Lie, by John Bottomley, published by Morning Star Publishing in 2015.What are the beliefs that underpin modernity’s construction of work and economy? How did these beliefs come into being? What is the role of ideology in this process? How are modernity’s beliefs about work and what constitutes the legitimate spheres for the expression of human emotion sustained? These are the questions we explore as we start this new series.

Well-being

The language of Well-being is increasingly moving into religion’s traditional realm. It potentially integrates the personal, communal and political through more holistic and spiritual approaches to the mysteries of illness, death and the nature of human life than current western medical models. Key generational and historical injustice issues to be addressed include indigenous inequalities, aging, youth unemployment, domestic violence, abuse, and mental illness. The religious quest for flourishing (e.g. shalom, abundant life) connects with these pressing wellbeing issues and their ecological, economic and spiritual causes. Such healing contributions could help restore the sense of safety, transparency and authenticity of the church’s pastoral practices and services to society amidst pressures towards secularisation, privatisation and centralisation.

Get in touch

Syriac Language

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic.

Aramaic, in its various dialects, spans four millennia and has never ceased to be spoken. Already in Antiquity it is witnessed by inscriptions and documents from an area stretching from Western Turkey to Afghanistan, from the Russian Caucasus to southern Egypt. It became a major literary language for three faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Syriac, one of Aramaic’s major dialects, became the language of middle-eastern Christianity. It was spoken throughout a vast area covering modern day Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, and reached southern India and western China by the time of the Arab conquests in the seventh century. In the twentieth century, Syriac was taken by emigrés to all five continents.Syriac is a close dialect of Palestinian Aramaic. Recent evidence strongly points to Palestinian Aramaic as having been the normal language of Jesus of Nazareth, though he may also have used Hebrew and Greek on some occasions. Classical Syriac literature is vast. By contrast, very little Palestinian Aramaic has survived; for the most part it is in the form of very short inscriptions.

Greek Koiné or “common” Greek became the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East for several centuries after Greek was introduced following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE.

Research Foci

The Syriac Language Research Project has two research foci: the Peshitta Syriac lexicon A Key to the Peshitta Gospels (KPG), and the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP).

Featured Links

• 

  A Key to the Peshitta Gospels

  A Key to the Peshitta Gospels (KPG) is a Syriac-English dictionary to the Syriac version of the Gospels. Two of the five volumes have been published in Bruce M. Metzger’s New Testament Tools and Studies series.

• 

  International Syriac Language Project

  The ISLP is a multi-disciplinary international group of ancient-language scholars who meet annually and publish their research in their own peer-reviewed series.

Meet the team

The office of the Syriac Language Research Project is located at Pilgrim Theological College in Melbourne, Australia.