Course Syllabus

Instructor: Carrie Doehring, PhD

Course Synopsis: 

This advanced course integrates knowledge, capacities, and skills for practicing socially just, interreligious, and research-literate spiritual care of moral stress and injury. This course draws upon psychological research on acute moral stress/injury and moral foundations theory on how people use “intuitive ethics” when moral stress arises from conflicting values. Readings on socially just spiritual care focus on practices, beliefs, and values that lament harm done by religiously based violence. A spiritually integrative pedagogy uses (1) spiritual self-care practices and deep listening conversations about self-care; (2) a spiritually integrative assignment about a personal experience of moral stress; (3) conversations with a learning partner about this integrative assignment. These experiential components help students develop capacities for spiritual self-differentiation, empathy, and reflexivity. IST 2012 Pastoral Theology and Care is a prerequisite.

Mandatory Zoom Sessions are on Wednesday 5:30 pm - 6:45 pm MT in Weeks 2 & 4

Readings will be posted in weekly course instructions and the bibliography, except for our one textbook: Graham, L. K. (2017). Moral injury: Restoring wounded souls. Abingdon Press. The Iliff library e-book only permits one user at a time. You can buy a new copy for about $13.50 and used copies are also available online.

Our course is organized into weekly modules. Click on "Modules" on the left-hand list of navigation tabs (below Home) to see the modules.

Learning Goals

Learning Covenant

Self-care and Iliff's EAP for accessing 2 therapy sessions

Course Requirements

Discussion posts and responses: (50% of grade Note: Each point is 1% of the final grade)

W 1- 4, 10 Discussion – 10 points each week (7 points for discussion post; 3 points for responses)

Grading Rubric for Weekly Forum Discussion Posts and Responses

7 points for discussion posts: 

• On-time (1)
• Demonstrates spiritual self-care through spiritually self-reflexive descriptions exploring breath- or body-based spiritual practices (2)
• Cite quotations referencing key concepts from each reading (2)
• Substantive discussion of key concepts in response to each discussion prompt (2)

3 points for responses:

• On-time (1)
• Demonstrates deep listening by referencing details from a group member’s post about their spiritual practices and what they shared about their struggles (1)
• Deepens substantive discussion of key concepts (1)

Deep Listening Assignment (15% of grade)

W3: Sign up with a learning partner.

W4: During the week 4 zoom session, we will review how to record zoom videos and save them to iCloud using your Iliff pro accounts. and then you and your partner will record two 15” conversations spiritual care conversations about spiritual self-care practices. In one conversation, you will be the spiritual caregiver, opening the conversation with the question "Describe an experience of moral stress and how you practiced spiritual self-care."  You will then use a following, listening style of communication to practice deep listening skills. In the other conversation, you will be the spiritual care seeker describing spiritual self-care practices that connect you to goodness. You will post the link to your zoom conversation: Post the link and password for your zoom conversation as the deep listener

W6 Deep Listening Assignment (Monday, May 2):  Reflecting on your deep listening capacities using the Week 4 transcript (15 points)Week 6 Deep Listening Assignment (Due Monday, May 2) (15 points)

Journal Assignment & Conversation Guide (35% of grade)

W3: Draft sections 1 and 2 of the journal assignment; provide terms you will use for your literature search. (graded as complete/incomplete) Week 3 Journal Assignment Draft of Parts 1 and 2

W7 (Tuesday, May 10): This detailed outline 2022 4 12 Updated Journal Assignment Requirements, Grading, and Outline.docx   guides you through the process of reflecting upon a particular experience of overwhelming stress involving religious, spiritual, or moral struggles. You will also do a literature search using terms that describe the kind of overwhelming stress and struggles you experienced and/or the beliefs from your spiritual/religious/cultural background that shaped your initial understanding and/or how you now understand this experience. Here is a page on how to do a Literature search: Resources (30%) Attach your assignment to this group discussion: Week 7: Posting your journal assignment

Grading Rubric (30 points)

• uses a spiritually integrative process grounded in intrinsically meaningful body and breath-based practices, (5)
• uses key concepts from course readings, (15) 
• completes a literature search that yields meaningful religious, theological, and psychological references that are used to elaborate each section of the assignment fully. (10)

W8 Due Thursday, May 19) Read your partner’s journal assignment and submit your conversation guide Week 8 Posting your conversation guide (5 points)

W9 (Scheduled with your partner/s for a time on May 24 - 27) Do two 25–minute spiritual care conversations with your learning partner and Carrie Doehring. In one conversation, you will be the spiritual caregiver, and in the other conversation, you will be the spiritual care seeker.Sign-Up for a Week 9 Conversation time

Final Grade Scale (Note: at Iliff professors determine grading scales they will use to assign final course grades) A 97-100; A- 93-96; B+ 89-92; B 85-88; B- 81-84; C+ 77-81; C: 73-76; C- 69-72; D+ 65-68; D 61-64; D- 57-60; F 0-59