Interweavings: Deep Listening: Dynamic Practices and Living Texts
Event Type:
- Presentation
- (Online)
Featuring:
- Rabbi Leila Gal Berner and Sheri D. Kling
Organizers:
- Process & Faith and Center for Process Studies
How might ancient texts speak to us afresh today? Can pre–modern practices be revitalized and re-imagined to address modern concerns?
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner and Sheri D. Kling strongly believe that there is still something life-giving in both ancient texts and pre-modern practices, and that both can come alive in dynamic ways while still being grounded in timeless wisdom.
Once Rabbi Berner was introduced to the Christian contemplative practice of lectio divina—a Latin phrase meaning “sacred reading”—she immediately fell in love with its ability to drop her into a living experience of biblical text. She wanted other Jews to have that same experience, and created a uniquely Jewish expression of lectio divina that she has named Kriat Hakodesh (Reading the Holy) reflected in her book, Listening to the Heart of Genesis: A Contemplative Path.
Sheri Kling has had similar experiences with Christian contemplative practices, and has refashioned three of them—lectio divina, praying with icons, and praying with the imagination—into a transreligious practice she calls Dream Divina. While the target of contemplation in her practice is one’s individual dream and its images, the underlying spiritual “technologies” of the Christian practices still carry the same power to reveal the presence of the Sacred.
In this event, Rabbi Berner and Dr. Kling will share their own experiences with reshaping traditional practices to reawaken modern sensibilities to potentially transforming encounters with texts and with the Divine.
Featuring
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and holds a second ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (of blessed memory). She received her doctorate in medieval Jewish history from UCLA. She is Chair of the Bible Department of the ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal Ordination Program where she teaches biblical and medieval history, feminist thought, and midrash. Dr. Berner has taught in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at American University and George Washington and Emory universities, and Swarthmore and Reed colleges. She is the author of Listening to the Heart of Genesis: A Contemplative Path. https://www.rabbileila.com/
Sheri D. Kling
Sheri D. Kling, PhD is a theologian, songwriter, and spiritual teacher who draws from wisdom and mystical traditions, relational worldviews, depth psychology, and the intersection of spirituality and science to help people find meaning, belonging, and transformation. She serves as director of Process & Faith with the Center for Process Studies, interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, Florida, and teaches regularly for the Haden Institute and Claremont School of Theology, from which she earned her doctorate. She is the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation, and editor of Renewing Faith: Reigniting Faith and Ministry through Process and Open & Relational Theologies. As a public speaker, Sheri delivers dynamic presentations to groups, and offers courses, concerts, and spiritual retreats. She can be found online at sherikling.com, at sherikling.substack.com and also on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@drsherikling
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