Learn to Hear God in a Noisy World.

Taking Matthew 5 as an invitation to slow down and pay attention, Prof. John Swinton guides students to an understanding of life in pursuit of God amidst cultural anxiety, division, and distraction. Jesus’s blessings do not represent unattainable ideals, but a livable pattern of discipleship. Discover the subversive, healing power of a life modeled after the Beatitudes in this online, self-paced course.

In This Course You Will Be Invited To

•examine Jesus's list of blessings in Matthew 5.

•reconsider the meaning of the Beatitudes, individually and collectively.

•think about how the Beatitudes might offer a way of patterning your own life.

•contrast Jesus's vision of life with the values of the modern world.

Course Outline

Explore poverty of spirit as a way of letting go of self-sufficiency in an anxious age.

Explore mourning as a way of truthfully inhabiting a broken world, offering solidarity with the suffering.

Discover meekness as a refusal of domination, a way of subverting power through gentleness.

Explore the right ordering of desire, in which justice is perceived as beautiful.

Inhabit the mercy that we ourselves require, thus healing the divisions of the heart and opening ourselves up to offer others mercy.

Explore how to heal the disjointedness of modern hearts through a single-minded gaze on God.

Consider the importance of confronting conflict head-on and moving beyond into reconciliation.

Explore how faith gets put under pressure when the Beatitudinal life comes into conflict with the world as it exists.

Consider Jesus's promise to "be with you always" in Matthew 28 as an expansion of the promises of the Beatitudes.

Over 4 Hours of Video Content
Reflection & Practice Activities
$54.99

Meet Your Instructor

John Swinton

Professor in Practical Theology

Dr. John Swinton is Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care and Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen. For more than a decade, John worked as a registered mental health nurse. He also worked for a number of years as a hospital and community mental health chaplain alongside people with severe mental health challenges, and in 2004 he founded Aberdeen's Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability. He has published widely within the areas of mental health, dementia, disability theology, end of life care, and pastoral care. His book, Dementia: Living in the Memories of God, won the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Ramsey Prize for excellence in theological writing. John is also a musician. You can find his album, Beautiful Songs About Difficult Things, online.

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Registered 501c3 non-profit organization

Courses developed for Admirato are made possible by the generous donations of people who support the Wisconsin Center for Christian Studies, Inc., a registered 501c3 non-profit organization. Tuition paid enables us to provide scholarships for those in need and allows us to fund new courses and translations of existing courses, and we are able to offer courses at significant discounts. Admirato is the online home for N.T. Wright Online courses and other resources developed by the Wisconsin Center for Christian Studies, Inc. Admirato exists as a legal entity under the umbrella of the Wisconsin Center for Christian Studies, Inc., and is considered part of the non-profit work according to the laws for 501c3 organizations.