Welcome to the koinos
‘Introduction to Spirituality’online course

We hope you find this exploration formative as well as informative. To make it formative, take time to follow website links and do some exploring of your own. More importantly, be sure to make use of the Spiritual Practices provided at the end of each new “Way” presented from history.  

The course is formatted into eight major chronological subdivisions or ‘WAYS’ Christian spirituality has been practiced through the centuries.  Each WAY features a person who sparked a new movement. The course provides a brief historical review of each person, along with several related websites for further research on your own. Questions, both informational and reflective, are included to help you ‘chew’ on the content.

After giving information, each segment of the course then invites you to experience a practice which arose from each movement. How much you choose to explore websites or utilize the spiritual exercises at the end of each WAY is up to you. Take as long as you need to work through the material provided. You will want to take at least a couple of hours on each WAY to work through the history, websites and questions.

Perhaps you could incorporate the spiritual practices this course suggests into your daily time with God.  Some periods of history will interest you more than others. There are no rules (or grades!); just have fun with the rich material!

To make it easy to recognize each type of literature, we’ve included icons, as follows:

   History

 ?   Questions

 URL   Websites  

  Spiritual practices  

Here’s a sequential list of eight WAYS Christian spirituality has been practiced through the ages.  

Lesson 1 – The Way of Martyrdom

Lesson 2 – The Solitary Way

Lesson 3 – The Academic Way

Lesson 4 – The Symbolic Way

Lesson 5 – The Communal Way

Lesson 6 – The Way of Poverty

Lesson 7 – The Mystical Way

Lesson 8 – The Way of Activism and Renewal

In each lesson, you can find a bibliography of resources related to the lesson's content. At the end of the course, a broader bibliography is included to help you continue learning about spirituality and church history.  

The Pacific Association is freely offering this course. We would gratefully receive your donations to help us expand our course offerings.  Send such [tax-deductible] gifts to:
The Pacific Association for Theological Studies
PO Box 593
Edmonds, WA 98020

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