“The way to love anything
is to realize
it might be lost.”
🌿Dear fellow traveler,
I am looking forward to our Kierkegaard Masterclass starting this Saturday. I have designed this class especially with learners from helping, healing, teaching, pastoral and spiritual professions in mind, wounded healers, educators and existential seekers :-) Because neither my studies in psychology nor philosophy nor theology taught me what a little book of Kierkegaard taught me about the human self, the anatomy of despair and the journey towards the deeper self.
Admittedly, “The Sickness unto Death” is an odd title, isn’t it? But then, being tired out by this never ending pandemic a “sickness unto death” isn’t so far fetched either. Haven’t we all lived for so long under this fear unto death?
For Kierkegaard despair is a genuine spiritual problem, a problem in the self, which he considers spirit.🌬 His spiritual depth psychology offers the missing link of understanding not only the suffering of this age and time but our own struggles and the ones of our clients, patients, directees, or loved ones.
🍃If you have been longing for some deeper reflection of the human self and how it comes to and overcomes despair in a holistic philosophy which integrates body, soul and spirit this class might be for you.
It will be taught live in an intimate group setting merging the best of European Seminar style and spiritual retreat elements adopted to the interest and needs of each participant to give you a profound learning experience which will enrich your own journey and the journey of the ones you care for.
I have taught this topic last at the Spiritual Department at the Jesuit University Munich to a diverse audience of Adult learners. It was an intellectually intriguing, spiritually moving and humbling experience.🍃
We will meet on 5 Saturday mornings (10am-12:30pm CST) starting Feb 27. We still have a few spots open.
And thank you for sharing this invite with another kindred spirit 🌱
I am looking forward to welcoming you on this journey, Almut
—-
Dr. Almut Furchert, Dr. phil., Dipl. Psych. (more about your teacher)
PS: Join us by enrolling below today.
If you have some more questions or would rather send a check you can reach out to us using the form below .
What participants of our Cloister Seminars say
Is this class for you?
This live taught Master Class is designed especially for people in the helping, teaching and pastoral professions (active or retired), and for all who long for more philosophical and theological reflection of their practical work and its existential dimensions, or simply of their own life’s philosophy. It does not require philosophical or theological training, just an open attitude and the willingness to do some reading at home and together in class. You do not even need to know or like Kierkegaard in order to participate.
Here are some things you might learn during the class
to place Kierkegaard’s thought in relation to other approaches e.g. of spiritual writers you know and cherish
to gain a multidimensional understanding of the human self
to understand despair as inherent to our human condition and as the road to healing (the deeper self)
to not be afraid of puzzling with the big existential questions
to connect Kierkegaard’s take on despair with postmodern approaches to trauma, shame, and (self-) compassion
to use philosophical and theological reflection as a way to enlighten your own experience of self and others
to read a demanding text and find personal insight in it…
The Teacher
Dr. Almut Furchert holds graduate degrees both in Philosophy of Religion and Clinical Psychology from German universities and has worked as an independent scholar, counselor, retreat and workshop leader since many years. She has published on existential writers like Søren Kierkegaard and wisdom teachers like Hildegard of Bingen and has taught them to undergraduate, graduate and adult learners on both continents. Her studies have been funded by national and international scholarships, including the Hong Kierkegaard House Foundation at St Olaf College, MN.
Almut is also the woman behind CloisterSeminars and “cloisters” together with her husband and little daughter in a little college town in MN.
Almut’s mission is to cultivate existential reflection as a way of life which benefits all who long for a deeper reflection of their own being and doing.
Costs
As always we want to make our program accessible to all. Thus we offer a sliding scale for this Master Class ( 5 Saturday mornings from 10-12:30 (CST) from February 27 - March 27, 2021) on a sliding scale from 190-390$. Those who will give more help us to offer stipends to others. Bless your for this.
How to (not) despair. Reading Kierkegaard during a Dark Winter Master Class
zoom meetings on the following Saturdays: 2/27, 3/6, 3/13, 3/20, 3/27/2021 at 10am-12:30pm CST.
taught by Almut Furchert, PhD (former fellow at the renowned Kierkegaard Research Library, Saint Olaf College, Northfield, MN, teacher and therapist)
This live Kierkegaard Master Class, especially designed with people from teaching, healing and pastoral professions in mind (active and retired), invites you to read into one of the most profound texts on the human self and its potential for both: to despair and to overcoming despair.
Done right, in contemplating our ability to despair we also find that we are capable to overcome despair and in doing so to regain purpose and hope.
In the style of a European seminar merged with retreat elements we will meet online on 5 Saturday mornings (CST) to ponder together one of the most intriguing texts on human nature; which the Dane gave the odd title “The Sickness unto Death”.
“None of my studies in psychology, philosophy, and theology has provided me with a deeper understanding of human nature than this little book by Kierkegaard…”, says Dr. Almut Furchert, who will teach this class.
Reading Kierkegaard’s analyses of despair should be especially revealing during this time of a life altering pandemic which has exhausted many and confronted us all with fear unto death on a daily basis, in us and around us.
The famous American psychologist Rollo May once called the Danish writer Søren Kierkegaard a psychologist who was before Freud already beyond Freud. Kierkegaard’s analyses of the human self and its despair indeed offers a depth psychology which still waits to be unpacked. It is both intellectually profound and accessible to all.
Understanding the self and its despair in an existential manner thus means to also understand it within our own life journey in order to rebuild resilience and hope.
Thus, in the spirit of cloisterseminars we will not only study together but practice “anthropological contemplation”, namely to deeply contemplate our own and all human nature on its journey from despair to new beginnings.
I am looking forward to have you join the class.
Almut Furchert, Dr. phil., Dipl. Psych.
PS: If you are interested in a class like this but the times or time zone do not work for you or you would rather see this class in a self study format make sure to get on our interest list below, so we can inform you about a new class coming up!